Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Democrat candidates are in a bidding war to promise voters the most free stuff. They don’t understand how society operates and risk destroying it.
In Star Trek, you could have as much as you want simply by punching the button on a replicator. But until that day arrives, some things will be less plentiful than others. How we deal with scarcity is economics and Democrats don’t understand it at all.
Large, perfect diamonds are scarce but women want them. Jewelers manage scarcity by price. Million-dollar paydays are scarce. Publisher’s Clearinghouse manages scarcity by chance. College degrees from Harvard – managing scarcity by affirmative action – or USC – managing scarcity by bribery.
Even food can be scarce. I went to an all-you-can-eat fish fry. The server brought the first portion but no seconds. She explained that too many customers had ordered fish, the restaurant was running run out, they were distributing one-to-a-customer. When I mentioned false advertising, she said: “That IS all you can eat, that’s all we’re going to give you.” Managing scarcity by rationing.
Free college, free health insurance, free medical care, paid free time, Democrats promise it all . . . but society can’t give everything to everybody for free so how will we manage scarcity? The candidates are conspicuously quiet about their plans for that.
They’re being “quiet” in the same sense I”m “ghosting Scarlett Johanson”; telling the truth is not part of the vocabulary.
Well the dilithium crystals that facilitated the generation of the staggering amounts of (matter/antimatter) energy that the Star Trek universe depended upon were, according to the story lines, scarce and difficult to come by so scarcity was a problem just not an immediate one for ST universe residents. Its like an electric car, you aren’t spewing CO2 as you drive but the gas/coal fired powerplant that provided the electricity so you can charge your car does.
The madness on the left has reached the point where they voice the opinion that the government can simply print as much money as needed for their hare brained schemes. It’s called Modern Monetary Theory. The idea is that the government prints money (aka deficit spending) until the inflation meter starts to pick up, then it should raise taxes to reduce the demand for consumer goods & cool the inflationary heat.
It is not a popular theory among economists (other than Paul Krugman, the Worst Economist in America). The reason it is not popular is because it more or less incentivizes politicians to deficit spend at all times, and provides no incentive to raise taxes.
“Inflation is up to 10%, so I am going to raise your taxes 10%” is not a winning message in a democracy.
Ocasio-Cortez is big fan of MMT.
It’s been a long time since we had double-digit inflation. Some economists on the Left (like Paul Krugman) are inflation doves because inflation reduces the value of capital when compared to labor (I am oversimplifying, but not by much). Leftist economics — destroying wealth and killing citizens for over a century!
I can’t help it. If we have another winter like this last one. I will pledge to vote for any candidate who promises me a free three weeks in the sun vacation.
First law of Thermodynamics and Economics is TANSTAAFL – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Heck that was old news when Noah was a child.
Managing scarcity when giving everyone free stuff is a lot easier when guns are scarce.
Somehow, per MW’s comment, it seems as if it’s lithium, not dilithium, that the left is taking. Just sayin’.
But seriously, if Mitch’s description of Star Trek were right, you would expect all the characters to be obese alcoholics, no? No limits to what you can eat or do leads to destruction–just look at way too many “rich” athletes and actors who have died poor because they burned through their resources.
In a “participation Nobel Prize” world, however, it’s hard to get people to realize that.
No limits to what you can eat or do leads to destruction
This is what will happen of you have a significant UBI.
Pelosi & many on the left believe that w/o a need to work for a living, people will develop into adults virtuously. They will become artists or folk singers or something like that (at least that is what they say that they believe).
Anyone who believes this is crazy. A significant part of the population would spend all day watching TV, eating frozen pizza, and drinking big gulps,and smoking pakalolo if they could. They aren’t bad people, such is human nature.
I would love to see research that shows what the poor and uneducated would do if they had a guaranteed income of, say, $12k/year per person.
MP, I think we do have a picture of what happens when people have a guaranteed income. It’s called “the hood”. Bad stuff happens when people don’t fear going hungry.