He who places his hope on thee, O Virgin all-glorious, will prosper in all he does.

Inscription on Byzantine coin during reign of Romanus III



Sunday, November 07, 2010

Paean To The Static Society

Over at Och's place, I heard the same tired song about how families are being ripped from the old neighborhood by the necessity to find work in locales where jobs are available. I get a little tired of hearing about how people shouldn't have to move, upgrade their skills, or otherwise make themselves more employable. My response:

I don't have a problem with labor market efficiency. Consumers rule, and workers can't find work without satisfied consumers to keep the production process humming along.

You want a static society? That's fine with me as long as I don't have to live in it. Just raise marginal tax rates to the 90% range, and you'll have all of the stasis that you can handle. Entrepreneurship and small business will go out the window, and the only way to be socially mobile will be by kissing your boss's ass at some mega-cap company.

The nice thing about stasis is that we'll have pleasant TV shows, like Leave It To Beaver. Yes, I'm talking about a return to the 50s and early 60s. Fonzie wasn't so bad, after all, right?


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