When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first

The words of P. J. O’Rourke — “When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.” — cut with the sharpness of satire but land with the gravity of prophecy. O’Rourke, a master of political humor, warned that whenever the state extends its hand too far into commerce, the temptation for corruption grows. The market for goods soon becomes a market for power itself, where influence is the currency and the legislator becomes the merchandise.

The meaning is stark: laws meant to regulate trade often create opportunities for manipulation, bribery, and favoritism. When legislation decides who may prosper and who must fail, men of wealth and ambition will not stop at competing in the marketplace — they will seek to purchase the makers of law themselves. Thus, the very guardians of justice risk becoming commodities, bartered away in the silent halls of influence.

History bears grim testimony to this truth. In the Gilded Age of America, corporations like the railroads wielded vast power, using bribes to secure favorable laws and crush their rivals. Senators and representatives, entrusted with the people’s welfare, were caught in webs of patronage and payoff. What was supposed to be the defense of fairness became instead the marketplace of corruption. O’Rourke’s words, though humorous in tone, point directly to these dark chapters where legislators were indeed bought and sold.

Nor is this confined to the past. The scandals of lobbying in modern governments — where powerful industries funnel money to politicians to secure favorable votes — reflect the same peril. Whether in agriculture, energy, or finance, when buying and selling are controlled by law, those with wealth seek to shape the law itself. The legislator becomes both gatekeeper and gate-for-sale, and democracy trembles under the weight of hidden transactions.

Let this wisdom be remembered: whenever power decides profit, men will seek to purchase power. Guard, then, the legislator, for he is the ligament between people and law. Without vigilance, his honor may be traded like coin, and the republic will rot from within. O’Rourke’s jest, though playful, stands as a warning to future generations: corruption does not always begin in the market; it begins in the heart of the one who makes the rules of the market. And if the people do not hold their leaders to account, they will soon discover that they themselves have been sold.