Y’all, we’re blaming the wrong people for stuff.

Occupy Wall Street protesters blamed banks and bankers for the perceived undue influence of corporations on government, but they failed to consider the mandates of either financial services executives or congresspeople. The bankers were hired to create long term shareholder value and the congresspeople were elected based on their promise to legislate in the best interests of all the people they represent. When the executives influence lawmakers to do what’s in the best interests of banks, this is a success against the mandate of the executives and a failure against the mandate of the congresspeople.

Similarly, there seems to be fairly widespread dislike of lobbyists, whose job it is to influence legislators. Instead of blaming the party who is successful in completing the job for which they signed up, we should blame legislators who allow themselves to be influenced by lobbyists. When they were elected, they promised to do what’s in the best interests of all of their constituents, not only those who can afford lobbyists.

You can fault lobbyists for not choosing a more noble profession, but the greater sin is choosing a profession with a noble mission and then breaking the promise you made to those who elected you. That’s exactly what our senators and congresspeople do every time they allow themselves to be unduly influenced by wealthy constituents. Remaining above the influence of lobbyists is probably extraordinarily difficult, but that’s the job that legislators took an oath promising they would do.

Safe streets advocates and vulnerable streets users often blame motorists for careless behavior like speeding, inattentive driving, etc. If motorists are intentionally being reckless, surely they are to blame, but more often, careless motorists are merely responding rationally to the incentive system that our law enforcement forces and departments of transportation have constructed around them. The traffic engineers in our DOTs have failed to design streets that disincentivize fast and/or careless driving. Instead of employing proven tactics like raised medians, neckdowns, thinner roads, etc., most DOTs continue to prioritize rapid, unencumbered motor traffic flow over the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.

Complicit in enabling dangerous motorists are our nation’s police forces, many of whom fail to prioritize road safety despite the fact that more people are killed every year in America by cars than by guns. Motorists have learned that law enforcement departments issue relatively few tickets for speeding and other violations and, in a rational response, many drivers routinely exceed the legal speed limit, run red lights, etc.

Police officers can be commended for choosing such a noble profession — I can think of none more selfless and benevolent than that of protecting and serving civilians. The rightful veneration of those who’ve chosen to risk their lives for the safety of others makes even more shameful the failure of those who neglect to protect and serve the vulnerable by enforcing motor vehicle laws.

Ecologically conscious consumers recently became furious at Restoration Hardware for its mass distribution of an unsolicited 17 pound catalog. Instead of blaming Restoration Hardware for making an informed decision undoubtedly based on a thorough calculation that forecasted a positive return on investment from that mailing, they should blame the US Postal Service for failing to appropriately price shipping.

Several silicon valley startups have recently provoked outrage by coordinating new markets for things that had previously not been able to be exchanged for money, such as restaurant reservations and parking spots. But as Market Urbanism’s Emily Washington correctly pointed out, it’s wrong to blame these entrepreneurs. If anything, we should thank them for bringing to our attention the problem of cities underpricing parking.

12/17/14 Update: Regarding the New York magazine story of the Stuyvesant High School student who made $72M trading stocks, some have placed blame on the student, Mohammed Islam, himself. Mo is 17 years old, and while he’s no saint, that’s kind of a hilarious and awesome prank for a high school kid to pull. Far greater blame should fall on New York magazine for failing to fact-check and report accurately.