John Hospers

People speak of ‘the public interest.’ But what is the public interest? Strictly speaking, there is no such thing. There is only the interest of each individual human being. There are interests that many or all people share, but these are still the interests of individuals. When politicians say that something is ‘in the public interest,’ they usually mean it serves the interests of some people but goes against the interests of others — and usually the interests of the people with the most political pull win out.