Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Why liberals blame corporations

I just had one of those little insights I sometimes get at night.

It's an economic law that you have to produce before you can consume. But liberals, and plenty of conservatives, think consumption drives production. That's Keynesianism.

That misunderstanding of economics also infects political beliefs. Libertarians understand that politicians, being human beings, sell their product to others. The product they sell is our power and our money: the things they steal from us at the point of the government's gun. Corporations, the highest bidders, buy that product to advance their own interests. If they didn't, somebody else would buy our money and power and use it against them.

But liberals believe that corporate demand for our power and money drives production. They think government would be good if corporations didn't create demand. They blame the consumer instead of the producer. It's the same fundamental misunderstanding of economics applied to politics.

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