….This idea of government office as an especially noble calling is false: human nature does not change when a man or woman enters public office. People are self-interested by nature, and this nature does not change when one sits behind a government desk.
Of public and private, one is neither better nor worse than the other. It’s the insistence that public life is a better way that presents countless problems for society. There’s as much virtue in being a baker as there is in being governor.
Via Public Choice Theory Inoculates People from Poor Policy @ Daily Adams.