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Also relevant to the cash for clunkers discussion is this old piece, by Frederic Bastiat.

A question to ponder: are programs such as these more popular with old people than young? The reasoning would be that older people are less likely to have to pay their full share of the costs of the programs, while they would get all the benefits (assuming that the programs are financed by larger budget deficits rather than immediate increases in taxes or immediate cuts in other programs). In his book The Myth of the Rational Voter, Bryan Caplan suggests that the claim that voters decide who to vote for based on their (economic) self-interest is generally false. I haven’t looked into this myself, but it seems like the current surge of deficit spending should provide a good opportunity to study it.

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HT: Sweetie
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