4 ms·

This is just daft. Supermarkets are fueled by 'government subsidies'; the poor get welfare and go off and spend there. Freight companies are fueled by 'govern

This is just daft. Supermarkets are fueled by 'government subsidies'; the poor get welfare and go off and spend there. Freight companies are fueled by 'government subsidies'; the roads are hardly paid for by them solo. Oh, and the supermarkers they are delivering to are fueled by 'government subsidies'. My grandfather was a truck driver. He was fueled by... And so on. The government is supposed to support Good Things (or at least get out of the way of them). The way that the media seem to be obsessing over spending recently is really rather silly.

justinmk 11y ago
It turns out that when the government draws a bunch of taxes and then spends it, markets get distorted. Then the government takes credit for anything good that the markets do with the money, and opportunity cost is ignored because it's incalculable.
- Brakenshire 11y ago
  One man's market distortion is another man's pricing in of manifest but indirect costs. To take an obvious case, it might be very cheap for my neighbour to heat his house with coal. Then one day laws are introduced which say he has to abide by emissions standards, and in order to do that, buy an expensive clean-burning stove, and expensive specially refined low-sulphur coal. If that ends up making it cheaper to use natural gas instead, no doubt the coal company (and the neighbour) will say the rules represent an artificial distortion of the market. But I would say the rules are there prevent him transferring the true costs of burning cheap coal onto my family (and the other families nearby) and their health.
- wfo 11y ago
  Government spending distorts the market towards 'things that are good for citizens' and away from 'things that are good for the owning class', you mean. And your second phrase is exactly backwards; the government funds research no corporation would ever be able to fund because it isn't profit-maximizing, and when all that public funding inevitably reaches a breakthrough that's good for businesses and people alike the profits are subsequently privatized giving the public sector no credit.

justinmk 11y ago

It turns out that when the government draws a bunch of taxes and then spends it, markets get distorted. Then the government takes credit for anything good that the markets do with the money, and opportunity cost is ignored because it's incalculable.

Brakenshire 11y ago
One man's market distortion is another man's pricing in of manifest but indirect costs. To take an obvious case, it might be very cheap for my neighbour to heat his house with coal. Then one day laws are introduced which say he has to abide by emissions standards, and in order to do that, buy an expensive clean-burning stove, and expensive specially refined low-sulphur coal. If that ends up making it cheaper to use natural gas instead, no doubt the coal company (and the neighbour) will say the rules represent an artificial distortion of the market. But I would say the rules are there prevent him transferring the true costs of burning cheap coal onto my family (and the other families nearby) and their health.
wfo 11y ago
Government spending distorts the market towards 'things that are good for citizens' and away from 'things that are good for the owning class', you mean. And your second phrase is exactly backwards; the government funds research no corporation would ever be able to fund because it isn't profit-maximizing, and when all that public funding inevitably reaches a breakthrough that's good for businesses and people alike the profits are subsequently privatized giving the public sector no credit.