Below is a letter that I sent last week to the Wall Street Journal:
So now Uncle Sam is subsidizing Americans’ purchases of golf carts (“Cash for Clubbers,” Oct. 17).
This sorry fact is unsurprising. As Milton Friedman pointed out, money is spent most carefully when the money spent belongs to the person spending it and when that person spends it for himself and his family. Money is spent least carefully – indeed, often destructively – when it does not belong to the person spending it and when that person spends it not for himself but, instead, for strangers.
Because Congress spends other people’s money ostensibly for other people’s good, subsidized golf carts are par for the course.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
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Welllllllll sheeeet mon, picture yourself riding in your golf cart paid for by your neighbors and dialing all your friends on the cell phone also provided free by your neighbors!
Gotta love this sheeeet mon!
Subsidized golf carts are *par for the course* — oh man, love the pun.
I wonder if Yasafi will wander in and explain to us why this is a good thing. Since Democrats are doing this, it has to be a good thing.I also anticipate Daniel admitting it’s a bad thing, with a however attached.
Ah yes, the perpetual fear of nuance
No, it’s pretty unambiguously a bad thing. If I thought that any of these golf carts actually would be used to drive around in (the article suggests that they fall under the credit for electric cars if they are street-worthy), I’d be somewhat more supportive of it. I’m in the Pigou club with Greg Mankiw. But I somehow doubt many of these will make it to the road.
Granted – that response still probably sounded like a “however” to your ears, but I think this is dumb. I can’t help how you hear it.
I think only you and John Kerry define nuance as arguing both sides of the debate.
It’s absolutely insane. But since golf carts are now free, we should all get one and encourage everyone else to get one as well.
Every American getting a “free” golf cart would be the single greatest economics lesson ever taught.
“Ah yes, the perpetual fear of nuance
No, it’s pretty unambiguously a bad thing.”
However…
“If I thought that any of these golf carts actually would be used to drive around in (the article suggests that they fall under the credit for electric cars if they are street-worthy), I’d be somewhat more supportive of it.”
Standard RDB nonsense.
Thanks for proving my point.
Thanks for proving my point.
“Ah yes, the perpetual fear of nuance
No, it’s pretty unambiguously a bad thing.”
However…
“If I thought that any of these golf carts actually would be used to drive around in (the article suggests that they fall under the credit for electric cars if they are street-worthy), I’d be somewhat more supportive of it.”
Standard RDB nonsense.
I think this argument by Friedman is just pure nonsense. We should not argue, as libertarians, that people spend their money more wisely or is more careful with it than the government or anybody else. The argument should be, always, don´t take from me by force. If people want golf carts, well then they should pay for it themselves. But saying most people are rational with their own money is nonsense just see the high private debt in the U.S.
This man has a point, ya know?
“But saying most people are rational with their own money is nonsense just see the high private debt in the U.S.”
I might quibble with the use of the word most and wish to substitute many in its place, but the point remains.
This man has a point, ya know?
“But saying most people are rational with their own money is nonsense just see the high private debt in the U.S.”
I might quibble with the use of the word most and wish to substitute many in its place, but the point remains.
I think this argument by Friedman is just pure nonsense. We should not argue, as libertarians, that people spend their money more wisely or is more careful with it than the government or anybody else. The argument should be, always, don´t take from me by force. If people want golf carts, well then they should pay for it themselves. But saying most people are rational with their own money is nonsense just see the high private debt in the U.S.