As the ranks of those dependent on the welfare state continue to grow, the need for the rulers to pay attention to the ruled population diminishes. The masters know full well that the sheep will not bolt the enclosure in which the shepherds are making it possible for them to survive. Every person who becomes dependent on the state simultaneously becomes one less person who might act in some way to oppose the existing regime. Thus have modern governments gone greatly beyond the bread and circuses with which the Roman Caesars purchased the common people’s allegiance. In these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the only changes that occur in the makeup of the ruling elite resemble a shuffling of the occupants in the first-class cabins of a luxury liner. Never mind that this liner is the economic and moral equivalent of the Titanic and that its ultimate fate is no more propitious than was that of the “unsinkable” ship that went to the bottom a century ago.
From Professor Robert Higgs.
Oh, this very much applies to the Philippine political setting. Think Pork Barrel politics and the 250 political dynasties. And that's why the search for the elusive efficacious leader who is supposed to deliver us from hardship will always be just that: a constant source of frustration. People don't realize that the much sought after miracle of effectiveness and justice from the nanny patriarch state will always be a mirage.
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