From Poverty to Prosperity Watch

Predatory behavior is always bad, not mattering if it comes from the government (executive, legislature or judiciary), a political party, a group of politicians, an industry or a “too big to fail” single company, a church, a group of power, a pressure group (lobbyist, for example), a “well-connected” single individual, a ngo, etc. But, what are the causes of that predatory behavior? Some argue in favor of a restricted and bounded entry in those groups (less predatory agents=>less competition for resources=>less predation; induced inefficiency in rent seeking), other argue in favor of a more effective impersonal controls on those groups (better laws, rules, regulation, etc; better incentives=>better behavior), other argue in favor of less profitable opportunities for predatory behavior by means of governmental partiality, at all (reduced government, legislation, regulation, etc). The first and last standpoints work without any information about agents’ preferences, but the first sounds “anti-democratic”. The third presumes that every predatory behavior emanates from the political power, as predatory behavior was linked to “political”, not to “the power”. That is, any agent with some kind of power, including political power, military power, economic power, seduction power, and so forth, will use that power predatorily if that is advantageous for the empowered agent. So, I am not versed in solutions for this kind of problems, but any efficacious solution should pulverize powers of mass effect, without violate some essential rights and property rights.