… is from page 107 of my GMU Econ colleague Larry White’s superb 2012 book, The Clash of Economic Ideas:
When every industry restricts its own output, the logically necessary result is a shrinkage of total output that makes the entire economy poorer, discourages investment and employment, and blocks recovery. Put another way, the monopoly restriction of one industry’s output can increase that industry’s share of national income, but it cannot raise national income.
DBx: FDR’s vaunted “Brain Trust” promoted the brainless idea that the government would cause Americans’ access to goods and services to increase by arranging for the amounts of goods and services produced by all industries to decrease. This folly is yet another instance of the too-common notion peddled by many interventionists that 10-2=15.
