All I Need to Know About Economics...
Posted by: tony on 01/14/2009 06:17 PM
Updated by: tony on 01/14/2009 06:17 PM
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Expires: 02/14/2009 12:00 AM
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...I learned in kindergarten (to shamelessly plagiarize from the title of a popular book).
I have been involved in a discussion in Vox Nova in a thread started by blackadder regarding sweatshops. I think I have been banned from commenting by the libs at Vox-Nova. None of them have had the guts to tell me not to post, the cowards simply leave my missives in the moderation queue or delete them outright.
When I was in kindergarten, we used to get allowance money for doing little chores around the house. We would take the allowance money and go to Brown's corner store to buy candy. Occasionally, a few of us would have only a couple of pennies each, and we would pool them, buy the item (be it a slice of pizza, or a pee-wee soda and we would share it. We would generally share it fairly because if someone cheated, it would be the last time they would be invited to pool their money to buy something to share. Sometimes we would pool our money, and there would be an extra kid who we would share with even though he didn't have any money, because he was our friend.
We would never think of stealing someone else's money. That would get you ostracized for good from the group, and word would spread and you would be alone for your entire elementary school career.
Fast forward to today...
I am an adult and I and my family live in a community of people. We generally earn our money, and spend it on our family. However there are things that we need to pool our money so that we all can have them. We don't buy our own police force, fire department, public works, sewer and water. We get together with others, and we pool our money and buy single agencies which work for all of the people who have pooled their money. They also work for people who live in the community and who have not contributed any money. We are happy to do this because it fits in with our idea of the public good. We partake of the services, and we're happy to let others partake of them too, because it's good for everyone.
However, now we have people who elect politicians who promise to steal money from the people who are working and will give it to them in the form of money they haven't earned, or services that I cannot partake of (such as welfare, food stamps or a "stimulus check"). In kindergarten parlance, a kid befriends a big bully who threatens to beat you up if you don't give him either something you own, or some or all of your money.
In kindergarten, the big bully would be ostracized, but we've gotten to the point that more kids benefit from his behavior, so he has a whole coterie of toadies to hang out with. The bully isn't looked down on as a common thief, because he's stealing for those less fortunate than the kids who have the money (and he gets to skim some of it himself... not too much, even his toadies have their limit).
So the kids who have the money start to think of creative ways to hide it, or stop earning money altogether, or worst of all, joining the bully's group of toadies.
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