Comments on: The Market: The Only Trustworthy Pollster http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/the-market-the-only-trustworthy-pollster/ Ideas on Liberty Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:57:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Bruce http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/the-market-the-only-trustworthy-pollster/comment-page-1/#comment-52647 Bruce Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:08:51 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/uncategorized/the-market-the-only-trustworthy-pollster/#comment-52647 Your insight into Unconstrained want vs. Actual want is at the very heart of nearly all the problems we face in the U.S. For many years now our government has had the ability to satisfy most any Unconstrained want it believes will provide political capital. More social programs, incredible benefits for public employees, more TSA “security, endless foreign wars; the list keeps growing. All due to our system of fiat money, supplied by the Fed with the actual costs invisibly drained from our savings and from our children's prosperity. Imagine if we had to live within our means. If we had Honest money. If we had to sacrifice in one area in order to spend in another. Want to provide subsidized medication to senior citizens, then eliminate funding for pre-school programs. Want to let public employees retire at 55, then increase retirement age for private workers to 75. Want to spend 3 Trillion on war in the middle east, then collect $10,000 from every citizen in the U.S. When there is no negative consequence for the choices we make, we make bad choices. An endless supply of Fiat money obscures the true costs for these many programs, And without knowing the true costs, we have no incentive to actually choose at all and so simply say “Yes” to every program both wise and unwise. Humans need feedback in order to differentiate good choices from bad. A Honest Money system provides this feedback and is the only way to differentiate Unconstrained from Actual want. Your insight into Unconstrained want vs. Actual want is at the very heart of nearly all the problems we face in the U.S. For many years now our government has had the ability to satisfy most any Unconstrained want it believes will provide political capital. More social programs, incredible benefits for public employees, more TSA “security, endless foreign wars; the list keeps growing. All due to our system of fiat money, supplied by the Fed with the actual costs invisibly drained from our savings and from our children’s prosperity.

Imagine if we had to live within our means. If we had Honest money. If we had to sacrifice in one area in order to spend in another. Want to provide subsidized medication to senior citizens, then eliminate funding for pre-school programs. Want to let public employees retire at 55, then increase retirement age for private workers to 75. Want to spend 3 Trillion on war in the middle east, then collect $10,000 from every citizen in the U.S.

When there is no negative consequence for the choices we make, we make bad choices. An endless supply of Fiat money obscures the true costs for these many programs, And without knowing the true costs, we have no incentive to actually choose at all and so simply say “Yes” to every program both wise and unwise.

Humans need feedback in order to differentiate good choices from bad. A Honest Money system provides this feedback and is the only way to differentiate Unconstrained from Actual want.

]]> By: The Only Trustworthy Pollster is the Market http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/the-market-the-only-trustworthy-pollster/comment-page-1/#comment-20433 The Only Trustworthy Pollster is the Market Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:36:12 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/uncategorized/the-market-the-only-trustworthy-pollster/#comment-20433 [...] This essay of mine from the mid-1990s takes another stab at this explanation; it’s entitled &#....” [...] [...] This essay of mine from the mid-1990s takes another stab at this explanation; it’s entitled &#….” [...]

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