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Sep

2

Politicians and Stupidity… or is it Manipulative Demagoguery?

September 2, 2005 |

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” — Ernest Benn

Fast Eddie Rendell is jumping quickly to the head of the parade with talk of capping prices at the pump to protect the poor consumer. Did he not ever hear of the price caps of the 1970s, and the lines that ensued when incentives for getting gas to the market were removed?

Odds are that this is sheer economic illiteracy rearing its head and nothing more. But then again, politicians always need a bogeyman to rally the masses into line — and many politicians who know better will use an issue like this to win points on election day, even if they know the policies are garbage through and through.

Whatever the case, the folks over at Ernharth Perspective have a short and sweet commentary on the price goughing myth. We worry that too few poeple understand the important need for high prices at times, and we hope that Fast Eddie does not get his way with price caps.

That said, our readers should always remember the first priority of most politicians:

    “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed — and thus clamorous to be led to safety — by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” — H.L. Mencken


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