I am reading Greedy Bastards by Dylan Ratigan, and find this book fascinating. It's all about how this county has gotten off on the wrong track, and suggest how we can right ourselves.
In one chapter he talks about how the prices we pay are so manipulated by businesses and politicians that we can't really tell the values of anything.
From the book:.....Say I own an old car powered by a gasoline engine. Maybe I've started to wonder if my next car should run on electricity or on flex fuel such as ethanol. Like may people, Ill make that decision based on price. If gasoline is cheap, I'll stick with the good deal I already have.If it's more expensive, I might switch, I use price to judge what things are worth, and I base many of my most important decisions on it.
But what if the price of per gallon that I see posted at the pump is actually $10 to low because the oil companies used their influence with politicians to arrange subsidies, tax breaks, and other market controls? Now the government pays the additional $10 per gallon and then passes the bill on to the taxpayers. In that case the free market can't help me decide if it's worth switching from gas to another fuel, because the market isn't free, it's rigged. My best attempts to compare prices so that I can make an informed decision about car to buy will come out wrong, because the prices I use to make my choices are inaccurate. Without price integrity, I can be tricked into spending my money in ways that benefit greedy bastards, because I don't actually know the price I'm paying. But if I can learn how the prices have been distorted, then I can restore integrity to the system and make smarter decisions as a consumer.
I love this book and I recomend it to anyone who feels our country is out of control.
4 comments:
"Free market" certainly is a joke.
We don't know half of what goes on with these bastards.
I like Dylan. I'll check that book out.
It really hooked me Spencer.
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