Video: James Buchanan on the Myth of Public Interest

Nobel prize winner in economics and public choice theorist James M. Buchanan offers his terse explanation on why--what populist politics perceives as "public interest" is a myth (hat tip Cafe Hayek)

There is certainly no measurable concept that’s meaningful that should be called the public interest. Because how do you weigh different interests of different groups and what they can get out of it? 

The public interest as a politician thinks, it does not mean it exist but what he thinks is good for the country… And to come out and say that, that’s one thing…but behind the hypocrisy of calling something THE public interest that doesn’t exist—that was what I was trying to tell them