12
May
2015
Potpourri
==> This Niall Ferguson hit piece on Krugman has some good zingers, but word for word I have something better coming out soon, I daresay.
==> My latest Mises CA piece on the silly outrage over Walmart selling water bottles for 88 cents. You’re thinking little water bottles, right? Nope, I mean gallons.
==> It’s not available yet, but check out what they’re saying about my new book from the Independent Institute!
The Walmart outcry makes sense when you understand that the general Progressive mindset includes the idea that profits of any kind are evil and simply stay idle, contributing nothing to the economy, yet, paradoxically, making its beneficiaries rich. Yes, I’ve had this stated direct at me (see my Disqus comments: https://disqus.com/by/EnopoletusHarding/ ).
How dare anyone accept what others are willing to offer them.
The “dollar stores” were underbidding other stores at $1 per gallon.
This is a drop of 22 cents, you Commie ignoramuses.
Just looked at the links to the praise for your upcoming book – impressive !
I love this blog – thanks for running it.
thanks
On the California water shortage:
I agree that if the market was allowed to set the price then it would increase to match supply and demand – which would be better than rationing.
But the supply is restricted by the fact that water is state-controlled. Assuming they sell all the water generally available and demand is inelastic then reduced supply and higher profits (rather than rationing) could easily lead to higher govt revenue.
Would it it be reasonable to ask that all that extra state revenue gets turned into tax cuts ?
Hah! When you made your video about the California water situation a few weeks ago, I showed it to a socialist friend of mine. He debated your assertion that the government had a “monopoly” on water by pointing out that you could go to Wal-Mart and buy bottled water, and Wal-Mart is a private company, therefore, the consumer has a choice of where to get their water and there is in fact, no monopoly.
I tried to explain to him that bottled water provides a vastly different service and is not easily substitutable for tap water in many applications (like, say, taking a hot shower) but he wasn’t having it. He was insistent that it’s chemically the same, and therefore it’s the same product. Obviously similar logic is in play here…
Your friend is a moron.
ask your friend how many people he knows that wash their cars and bathe with Walmart’s bottled water. Or maybe he could set up shop next to a Walmart and just fill bottles from his house and charge 87 cents. Or the next time he’s at a sporting event he should convince everyone to skip the bottled water to find a source of tap water.
I am not sure what the market for gallon bottles of tap water is, but it probably isn’t people at sports events. A few years ago the water pipe into our building froze for about 3 weeks. I found bottled water very useful over that period. I do not understand why anyone would buy bottled tap water for 10x the cost if they have access to a tap.
Personally I don’t see much point in buying mineral water either, but I can appreciate why others might. Buying tap water in a bottle seems to offer none of the reasons why people may choose mineral water.
On person said “The reaction should be immediate. And that is to find another supplier outside of California that can be able to meet the needs that they have and also the needs of the consumer” It is amusing that this person thinks a) that the quantity sold here will make any appreciable difference to the water supply, and b) he thinks the water sold in bottles is somehow extra to what would be consumed otherwise. There may be an issue if Walmart are exporting the water from her all over the USA.
Another amusing quote “Not only are they selling municipal water as bottled water…”
This gets to the origin of one problem people have with this. They apparently believe there is a category of “bottled water” that is distinguished from other water not merely by it being in a bottle. I guess they must be mixing it up with “mineral water” or something.
In the interests of clarity, and to avoid offending anyone, perhaps it should be more clearly labelled as “bottled municipal water”. I wonder what effect this would have on sales.
Congratulations on the fantastic praise for your new book. Does the book come with a DVD of you performing Karaoke? Will signed copies be available?