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Let’s say you design a policy

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that takes one penny
from a million people.

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And it gives that $10,000
to one person.

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Who’s going to know
about this policy?

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Are any of the million
going to even notice?

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I bet you the guy
who gets $10,000 will.

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[music playing]

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I’m Ben Powell, a Professor of Economics
at Suffolk University.

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Here we have politicians
promising to cut spending

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which voters generally want.

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But that’s a dispersed benefit.

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When they actually pick
the specific programs,

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that’s a concentrated cost.

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Let’s do some real back of
the envelope calculations here.

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There’s roughly 300 million
people in the United States.

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Roughly half of them are registered
to vote, that’s a 150 million.

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If half of them show up in
any given national election,

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that’s about 75 million.

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For your vote to change
the outcome of an election,

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it would have to be
exactly 37,500,000.

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The 37,500,000 and you
showing up at the polls,

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makes it 37,500,001
to tip the outcome

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so that you actually
get a different result.

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What’s the likelihood of
that happening? Near zero.

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In fact, economists have figured out

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you are more likely
to die in a car accident

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on the way to the polling place

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than to change the outcome
of a major national election.

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As a result, voters are
massively ignorant

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of the policies and their
politicians, and it makes sense.

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But a lot of interest groups are
very well informed to our policies.

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Not all of their
politicians’ policies

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but those policies
that specifically affect them.

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Farmers who get farm subsidies
have a big incentive to know

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which politicians
support their subsidies

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and how much they are getting.

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As a result, they not only
know about it,

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but give money to the campaigns
to help these people get elected

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and make sure they stay
in favor of the favored subsidies.

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Meanwhile spread across the food
cost of an average American,

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it’s a trivial amount of money

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so most Americans don’t even know
or feel this cost, and if they do,

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they hear some
general ad on television

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that talks about how
farmers are good for America.

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And they feel good about
this inefficient policy.

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These same interest groups
that lobby to get their benefits,

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lobby to keep their benefits.
This is the logic of politics.

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And this is why we end up
with more spending

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than the average voter usually wants.

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[music playing]