Public choice is an excellent attack on the naive view that all politics is aimed at "improving society as a whole." And regulatory capture of agencies like the Civil Aeronautics Board, allowing airline rate setting that favored established airlines, is an expected outcome according to public choice theory. But the CAB was abolished eventually.

More broadly, the expansion of so-called "minority rights" is not well-explained by economic theory. Even with the moral justifications supporting employment discrimination law, it is not accurate to say that prohibiting some reasons for hiring and firing workers is more efficient. At best, economic efficiency is unaffected.