Not a bug but a feature

Paul Krugman wants the U.S. Congress to greatly increase taxes on hedge funds. But, as Krugman correctly writes, this won't happen so long as hedge funds are major contributors to politicians such as Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid.

Krugman sees rich peoples' ability to politically protect themselves as a bug of democracy while I see it as a feature. Politicians are more powerful the more of other peoples' money they spend. Politicians, thus, benefit from going after rich peoples' wealth.

In the ancient Roman Republic rich people had to protect themselves by funding armies. In the U.S. rich people protect their wealth by hiring lobbyists. Such lobbyists let politicians know that if they take too much wealth from the lobbyists' rich clients then these clients will stop giving the politicians campaign contributions and start giving more contributions to their opponents. Without such lobbyists politicians would always impose huge taxes on rich people and thus few people would have incentives to become rich.