A businessman’s success depends on his intelligence, his knowledge, his
productive ability, his economic judgment—and on the voluntary agreement of
all those he deals with: his customers, his suppliers, his employees, his
creditors or investors. A bureaucrat’s success depends on his political pull. A
businessman cannot force you to buy his product; if he makes a mistake, he
suffers the consequences; if he fails, he takes the loss. A bureaucrat forces
you to obey his decisions, whether you agree with him or not—and the more
advanced the stage of a country’s statism, the wider and more discretionary the
powers wielded by a bureaucrat. If he makes a mistake, you suffer the
consequences; if he fails, he passes the loss on to you, in the form of
heavier taxes.