… is from page 219 of Milton & Rose Friedman’s great 1980 book, Free To Choose (original emphases):
Economists may not know much. But we know one thing very well: how to produce surpluses and shortages. Do you want a surplus? Have the government legislate a minimum price that is above the price that would otherwise prevail. That is what we have done at one time or another to produce surpluses of wheat, of sugar, of butter, or many other commodities.
Do you want a shortage? Have the government legislate a maximum price that is below the price that would otherwise prevail. That is what New York City and, more recently, other cities have doe for rental dwellings, and that is why they all suffer or will soon suffer from housing shortages. That is why there were so many shortages during World War II. That is why there is an energy crisis and a gasoline shortage.
DBx: Yes. And, of course, a government-legislated price of labor above the wage that would otherwise prevail is why the teenage unemployment rate – at 12.4 percent (in June 2024) being more than three times higher than the overall unemployment rate that month of 4.1 percent – is excessively high.
