Regarding this issue, here's a quote from Murray Rothbard's _Power and Market: Government and the Economy_:
"It is curious that almost all writers parrot the notion that private owners, possessing time preference, must take the 'short view,' while only government officials can take the 'long view' and allocate property to advance the 'general welfare.' The truth is exactly the reverse. The private individual, secure in his property and in his capital resource, can take the long view, for he wants to maintain the capital value of his resource. It is the government official who must take and run, who must plunder the property while he is still in command." (p189) I found the quote again while reading Hans-Hermann Hoppe's _Democracy -- the God that Failed_. Cheers! Daniel Ust http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/MyWorks.html
