August 16, 2024

Are price controls a good thing? Some of us remember the 1970s. And some of us remember history (Russia, anyone? Venezuela?). And some of us (me!) are married to economics majors. From a government website, opens in PDF.

The Economics of Price Controls Link HERE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

"Inflation has grown rapidly over the last year and reached a 41-year high of 9.1 percent in June 2022. In response, some policymakers have proposed implementing price controls (in particular, price ceilings) to reduce the cost of inflation for consumers. Instead of sustainably lowering prices, price ceilings cause shortages, reduce product quality, and can make longer-term inflation worse."

KEY POINTS

• A price ceiling creates a government-mandated maximum price that sellers can charge their customers.

• Price controls can lower prices for some consumers but also cause shortages which lead to arbitrary rationing and, over time, reduce product innovation and quality.

• Price controls during the 1970s caused shortages, especially of oil and gasoline. Rapid inflation followed the repeal of price controls.

• Price controls on prescription drugs—such as those imposed by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022—stunt pharmaceutical innovation, imposing large, long-run costs on Americans that outweigh the short-run benefits of lower prices."

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it--is this what you want? It's what Kamala wants. She tries to hide it under the guise of "price gouging" which obviously shows she has no idea what price gouging is.

She doesn't understand a lot of things, she just thinks they sound good and the maroons who are going to vote for her are too stupid to know, too. And too stupid to look it up. She doesn't even know the definition of inflation...

Now she wants to give first time home buyers $25,000. Vote buying. But who will pay for that? She's already said our taxes will go up. And all that will do is raise house prices by $25,000! We have to take in millions of illegal immigrants, and she's going to fix prices?! Hello, rationing! Hello black markets! Better learn to grow yer own.

Now go do the right thing.

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