Tuesday, February 2, 2016

The Economic Equivalent of Perpetual Motion

A Ben Domenech tweet, as quoted by Steven Hayward at Power Line, on the subject of the Iowa caucus results.
The economic nationalist couldn’t get a quarter of the GOP vote. The economic socialist got half the Democratic vote. Who’s extreme again?
He's correct; Trump got 24% (less than a quarter) and Sanders got 49+% (effectively half).

Meanwhile, it's reported that most young Dems favored Bernie's socialism-lite. Every generation has to learn anew (usually through bitter experience) that socialism is the economic equivalent of perpetual motion. That is, the seductive promise of getting something without working for it.

"Something for nothing" doesn't work in physics or in economics. The things in life you get without working for them are the things you don't want to be: poor, stupid, old, sick, fat, bored, and dead.