Bathroom scales don't lie. Neither does market economics.
to a great quote from P.J. O鈥橰ourke:
鈥淭he free market is not an ideology or a creed or something we鈥檙e supposed to take on faith, it鈥檚 a measurement. It鈥檚 a bathroom scale. I may hate what I see when I step on the bathroom scale, but I can鈥檛 pass a law saying I weigh 160 pounds. Authoritarian governments think they can pass that law鈥攁 law to change the measurement of things.鈥�
Perry then compares this to a minimum wage law:
A teenager with no work experience steps on a 鈥渂athroom scale鈥� that accurately and truthfully measures the market value of unskilled labor, and the scale says 鈥�$5.00 per hour.鈥� Politicians pass minimum wage legislation to rig the 鈥渂athroom scale鈥� of labor value to instead produce an inaccurate, false inflated reading of 鈥�$7.25 per hour.鈥� And they then seem puzzled that more than one out of every four teenagers who is looking for a job is unable to find one, but that鈥檚 what happens when you 鈥渞ig鈥� the 鈥渂athroom scale.鈥�
As part of my a couple of weeks ago, I had a rather unpleasant encounter with the scale at the doctor鈥檚 office. To think that I could achieve my fitness goals by lobbying my Congressman to pass a law would be absurd. Instead, I鈥檝e changed my diet and exercise habits. In particular, I鈥檝e relied on some advice I first heard from Jeff Tucker: no shower until I鈥檝e done thirty push-ups. I鈥檝e been happy with the results after two weeks, and it鈥檚 a nice binding constraint.
Recent heat and humidity offer a similar analogy. It has been really, really hot in Memphis and in other parts of the country. People have suffered as a result. A politician who claimed that he was going to fight a war on heat by passing a 鈥渕aximum temperature law鈥濃�搊r by switching temperature readings to celsius so that the numbers are smaller鈥搘ould be laughed at. And yet that same politician who claims that he is helping the poor by passing minimum wage laws, price-gouging statutes, rent control, and other forms of interference with market prices is lauded as a compassionate hero of the downtrodden.
You can鈥檛 change heat, humidity, or people鈥檚 weight by passing laws. You also can鈥檛 change people鈥檚 productivity by passing laws. 鈥淢ake it so鈥� is great campaign rhetoric but it鈥檚 lousy economics. In a grocery store a few years ago, I saw someone wearing a t-shirt that reads 鈥淪top Plate Tectonics.鈥� A shirt reading 鈥淪top Supply and Demand鈥� would make just as much sense.
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