Politics and economics explained

Gas was down to $2.16 at the cheapest station I saw on the way home today; and that got me to thinking. There was a lot of complaining about gouging and ripoffs when gas prices went up in the Spring and Summer of this year; but nobody seems to be taking notice of the decline in prices.

I can understand why people get upset when prices go up for what seems no apparent reason, and I can even understand that segment of the population that seems to see rapidly declining prices as proof that the prices are being manipulated by evildoers.

That kind of thinking is probably why a great many people like government run business so much. Government run businesses like the public schools and the Post Office have prices which go up and up and up, nice and steady. And they never, never, never get more efficient and cut prices. They also seldom produce new or better products. If they change at all the way they do things they change so slowly that a tortoise seems dynamic by contrast. I think that kind of stasis comforts people. It must; because 52% of the people just voted for a fellow whose whole life has been devoted to getting government more and more involved in more and more businesses.

Soon we'll have hospitals that avoid adopting new technologies just the way the public schools do, because new technologies cut the need for new employees. And we'll have pharmaceutical companies that are just as good at researching and developing new products as the post office is. And we'll have energy companies so tied up in politically correct environmental regulations and CO2 reduction regulations that they will be just as efficient and productive as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But, not to worry, as we pay more and more and more for ever less reliable energy supplies, and as we get poorer quality health care in the hospitas, and as we suffer and die prematurely from lack of new drugs, we'll all be comforted by the knowledge that the government cares and no one is getting rich except the politicians and their friends.