frankie's Journal: Supply and Demand

It should be implicit that our supposedly pro-business leadership in DC would understand the most basic principles of economics... but they don't. Hello, this is Earth, calling Washington, come in please. You can't eliminate demand by trying to artificially stop supply. The inevitable result is that price goes up, as does the attractiveness of the black market, and the supply keeps chugging along just fine.

The most obvious application is the expensive, invasive, big-government "War on Drugs". We have freaking military surveillance planes circling the Carribean, multiple armies of TLA policemen, SuperBowl adverts linking drugs to terrorism, and what do we get to show for it? More drugs. Please, let's declare "Mission Accomplished" already and move on. Legalize (aka tax) a few lesser drugs, and pour some of that Drug Czar money into rehab for the hard stuff.

The recently-escalated "War on Immigration" works exactly the same way. Go ahead, build a giant wall, ship migrant farmers to Guantanamo, whatever. They'll find other ways in. Again, the correct solution is to go after the demand side: businesses who hire illegally. Enforce existing labor laws, multiply non-compliance fines tenfold, and give cash bounties to citizens who turn in cheaters. If the cost of hiring illegals is the same as the cost of legal labor, then the immigrants go home, problem solved.

May as well mention the "War on Poverty" too. It takes slightly more work to identify the variables, but old-school welfare cannot succeed long-term. Job programs, training, and drug rehab are better answers. Yes, this might require cutting some hungry people off the teat, including "baby mamas". Sadly, it'll take twenty years without backsliding to see good results.

BTW, have you noticed that all of these answers somehow happen to be cashflow-positive for the government and/or the overall economy? Economics is funny that way.

And of course the "War on Terra"(*). Supply = insurgents, terrorists, etc. Demand = aggrieved people who feel that they have very little to lose and a lot to gain. You do the math.

(*) = registered trademark of Bushco, copyright 2001-2006. void where prohibited by law? yeah right.