… running political campaigns. This New York Times article implies that presidential candidates have collectively raised and spent over $2 billion for Election 2008. That will be an impressive contribution to our GDP statistic, but wouldn’t the country have been better off in the long run if we had invested the $2 billion in some new factories or clean energy powerplants?
Presumably the Chinese are not spending $2 billion deciding who will be their next dictator. Most Arab countries need not spend any money deciding who will be the next ruler, as the position is hereditary. The French have per-candidate spending limits of about 38 million euros (source), i.e., enough to buy six Diet Cokes at Charles de Gaulle airport.
When we factor in lost wages and productivity due to workers reading about the election instead of working, we may have to suspend elections for the next 10 years in order to avoid falling too far behind other nations (U.S. Congressional elections are especially wasteful as the incumbents are virtually untouchable).
The amount the candidates have raised is what, about, $6 per American? And for that we get way more entertainment value than a $10 movie ticket. It’s a bargain, I tell you!
Next you’ll be telling us we need to suspend movies or video games to avoid “falling too far behind” other nations. American politics is a spectator sport, no different from football. It gives people something to argue about. Is football “especially wasteful” because a few teams are virtually untouchable by most of the others?
Actually dictators tend to spend a much larger percentage of the GDP remaining in power, indirectly through e.g. grants of (often confiscated) assets to their cronies.
Dictatorships are democracies, too. The elections are unscheduled and are called civil wars.
The total cost of American elections over a century pales in comparison with the costs of even modest revolutions, which tend to happen at least once a century and usually more frequently.
The problem with the job of the president isn’t that the hiring process is too expensive — the job description is way too broad. I thought they had a decent one in the constitution.
It’s a tax we pay every four years directly into the hands of the media.
Lost its competitive edge? Go re-read your Toqueville. America has always spent much more on its political system than other countries.