Last week, renowned economist Walter Williams published an op-ed in Town Hall entitled “Liberal Reasoning: Idiotic or Dishonest?”
In just a little more than 600 words, Williams demolished so-called liberal reasoning when it comes to policies they support. For instance, they argue that a tax hike on gun sales would lead to tumbling sales. But he asks: what about raising the cost of labor? Won’t this decrease demand, too? Don’t tell this to Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders because their heads will spin.
He is what he writes:
“The Seattle City Council voted unanimously to establish a tax on gun and ammunition sales. Hillary Clinton has called for a 25 percent tax on gun sales. In Chicago, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle proposed ‘violence taxes’ on bullets to discourage criminals from buying guns. Let’s ignore the merit of these measures. They do show that gun grabbers acknowledge the law of demand. They want fewer gun sales and thus propose raising the cost of guns.
“But what about raising the cost of hiring workers through increases in the minimum wage? What the liberals believe — and want us to believe — is that though an increase in the cost of anything will cause people to use less of it, labor is exempt from the law of demand. That’s like accepting the idea that the law of gravity influences the falling behavior of everything except nice people. One would have to be a lunatic to believe either proposition.”
Where’s the consistency in this logic? They say that raising the price of something will discourage the sale of something. On the other hand, they say raising the price of labor will lead to economic growth. Huh?
In a nod to Williams’s superb piece, Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute posted a venn diagram to essentially summarize his article. Here it is:
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