******************************************************
The public sector. The public sector. The public SECTOR. The public SECTOR. The public SECTOR. The fucking public SECTOR. The mother fucking public SECTOR.
You: Hey, there are some companies, in the private SECTOR, and they run a deficit. They borrow a ton of money! Look how well they are doing! Therefore, let’s run the entire public SECTOR just like how some individual companies in the private SECTOR are run.
It’s ok for companies to borrow lots of money. Because… if some companies make stupid spending decisions then we, the consumers, give our money to whichever companies are making smart spending decisions. We can choose not to give our money to Amazon. We have the freedom to spend our money elsewhere. It’s entirely up to each and every one of us to decide entirely for ourselves whether or not Amazon is making too many mistakes. Consumer choice is what keeps Amazon on its toes. Our freedom of choice is what Amazon thinks about when deciding how they should spend the money that they earned and borrowed.
Borrowing in the private sector is ok because of consumer sovereignty. You know what you’re left with when you take away consumer sovereignty? Whatever your left with IS NOT a market. You’re left with a not-market.
Not-markets have different feedback mechanisms. Like voting. The government wants to borrow a shit ton of money and spend it on an unnecessary war. Then what? Then we, the voters, have to use our votes to try and replace whichever numskulls are in charge borrowing/spending a shit ton of money.
In the public sector we infrequently use votes to try and replace the leaders who are making terrible spending decisions. In the private sector we frequently move our money to whichever leaders are making the best spending decisions.
This isn’t a subtle distinction. But here you are completely ignoring this distinction and, as a result, you come to a completely moronic conclusion.
Here I am giving you feedback. It’s negative feedback. You wrote a shit story. Lots of other people also gave you feedback. But they gave you positive feedback by *hearting* your story. If Medium facilitated micropayments… then how much money would those people have given you? You don’t know. You’re not mother fucking omniscient.
The point of markets is to clarify demand. People are free to spend their own hard-earned money and when they do so it reveals the truth of their preferences and priorities. Not-markets do not clarify… they obscure… which is why they invariably waste massive amounts of society’s limited resources. Which is why it’s massively moronic for the government to run a deficit. And why it’s fundamentally important that people be free to choose which government organizations they give their taxes to (pragmatarianism FAQ).
Let me try and put my main point in a nutshell…
In order for deficit spending to work as well for America (one country) as it does for Amazon (one company)… leaving America would have to be as easy as leaving Amazon. Leaving America and moving to Canada would have to be as easy as moving your money from Amazon to Barnes and Noble.
With Amazon we have easy exit. With America we do not. Therefore, deficit spending for America is incredibly stupid. When consumers can’t easily boycott mistakes in the public SECTOR… then we want the public SECTOR to be as small as possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment