Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Alice Thompson: Earthlife.

They do not care about the poor.

In their submission to NERSA on the Eskom price hike application they said: "We could get our manufacturing industries going again through the introduction of tariff barriers to stop the influx of cheap imported goods which undermine our local economy." (Star - 26/01/2010).

Spot the error in their thinking.

Without going into what individuals such as Adam Smith said in the 18th Century (Wealth of Nations: a rhetorical piece written for the generally educated individual of the 18th century - advocating a free market economy as more productive and more beneficial to society - Wikipedia) and Friedman in the 20th - surely by now individuals realise that tariffs on cheap consumer goods lead to the increase of the labour cost of all other manufactured products (by increasing the wage demands of workers - to mention only one effect) and therfore is a very blunt instrument that only serves sectoral interests.

Alice you are the proud recipient of this week's award.

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