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'Sometimes," George Orwell admonished, "the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious." That's what I want to do — talk about the obvious.
Suppose that a person is faced with the choice of spending $50,000 on a brand-new car or paying two years' worth of college tuition for his 18-year-old. What is the solution? That's a stupid question.
In the world of economic decision making, there are no solutions — only trade-offs, where having more of one thing means having less of another. Having one desire fulfilled means having another unfulfilled.
For example, there's no solution to our health care issues. Congress' health care law simply substitutes its judgment on the delivery of medical services in the name of helping the uninsured. The trade-off is that Americans have less of something else — such as personal choices, after-tax income and very likely the quality of medical services.
How about the criticism that businesses are just in it for money and profits? That's supposed to be an anti-business slam, but upon simple examination it reflects gross stupidity or misunderstanding.
Wal-Mart owns 8,300 stores, of which 4,000 are in 44 different countries. Its 2010 revenue is expected to top $500 billion. Putting Wal-Mart's revenue in perspective, it exceeds the 2009 GDP of all but 18 of the world's 181 countries.
Why is Wal-Mart so successful? Millions of people voluntarily enter their stores and part with their money in exchange for Wal-Mart's products and services. In order for that to happen, Wal-Mart and millions of other profit-motivated businesses must please people.
Compare our level of satisfaction with the services of those "in it just for the money and profits" to those in it to serve the public as opposed to earning profits.
Power To Tax
A major nonprofit service provider is the public education establishment that delivers primary and secondary education at nearly a trillion-dollar annual cost. Public education is a major source of complaints about poor services that in many cases constitute nothing less than gross fraud.
If Wal-Mart, or any of the millions of producers who are in it for money and profits, were to deliver the same low-quality services, they would be out of business. But not public schools. Why?
People who produce public education get their pay, pay raises and perks whether customers are satisfied or not. They are not motivated by profits and therefore are under considerably less pressure to please customers. They use government to take customer money, in the form of taxes.
The big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is bad enough in itself. But politics can make anything worse. Let's stop and think. Either the government knows how to stop the oil spill or they don't. If they know how to stop it, then why have they let thousands of barrels of oil per day keep gushing out, ...
A political candidate can take on the public-employee unions in a nasty street rumble and emerge bloodied but victorious. That's the message from Tuesday's election to fill a board of supervisors seat in Orange County, Calif. It was a race that could have statewide and even national implications ...
In announcing the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran, President Obama stressed not once but twice Iran's increasing "isolation" from the world. This claim is not surprising considering that after 16 months of an "extended hand" policy, in response to which Iran ...
Concerning the job numbers from May, one can almost echo Henry James' exclamation after examining letters pertaining to Lord Byron's incest: "Nauseating, perhaps, but how quite inexpressibly significant." Except that the May numbers' significance can be expressed: A theory is being nibbled to death ...
The newspaper headlines say it all. On the one hand, "Crisis Imperils Liberal Benefits Long Expected by Europeans," while in this country: "Private Pay Plummets, Government Handouts Soar." The modern European welfare state has proven unsustainable. From Greece to Britain, from France to Portugal, ...
Posted By: dwdrury(1715) on 6/16/2010 | 12:54 AM ET
Wait! Williams, you lost me at the second paragraph! From your previous work, I believe you mean to illustrate one must forego the wheels and pay for the little snot nose's education. But its not that clear a solution. If you buy the vehicle, then the rug rat will have no option but to earn his or her own education, a lesson in economics and hard work towards a goal that just might make for a better citizen than if daddy simply paid the freight.
Posted By: Henry and Yulia Pratt(230) on 6/16/2010 | 12:37 AM ET
Once again, bigger and bigger government will force us to our knees. Why can't those on the left see this? Thanks Walter.
Posted By: Patriotdoc(465) on 6/15/2010 | 10:44 PM ET
Nicely written. Stating the obvious may help a few liberals who have no idea how capitalism and free markets work. I see economics of trade as a continuum, with statist, total gov't control on the left end, and complete freedom and lack of gov't interference of trade on the right end. Despite those who claim Tea Partiers want no gov't intervention at all, most want some reasonable regulation to prevent fraud and cheating. But we don't want statist control, crony capitalism or excess taxation
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