More Economic Illiteracy and a Hillary Cameo

A few years ago my wife was in need of an air conditioner. Her friend/neighbor informed her that another building tenant was coincidently trying to sell his. So my wife went up to see it. The seller wanted $150, my wife bid $130 (don’t ever say “offered”, the buyer “bids” and the seller “offers”), and the air conditioner changed hands at $130.

My wife went home and communicated the sale to that facilitating friend/neighbor of hers. My wife was quite happy with her procurement and described the very simple bidding process. Well guess what, her friend/neighbor became furious and claimed that it was unfair and deceitful to underbid the offer. She declaimed, “if you could afford $150, then you should have paid $150 !!!!!” Of course , my wife was taken aback by the no longer latent stupidity of now, just her neighbor.

“Pay what you can afford” or “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need” - a central tenet of socialism.

Next exhibit of economic illiteracy and somewhat of a corollary to the forementioned:

As a busy mother of a newborn, my wife found a forum, charlotte mommies, to be quite helpful. She would post questions pertaining to local pediatricians, daycare, teething, etc. and was almost overwhelmed with the enormity of instantaneous and helpful replies she would get. The site was truly a great find.

Of course, sometimes the posters got slightly off-topic. One “mommy” posted a tearful message that she had caught her husband cheating and with two small kids at home, she didn’t know what to do. Well that comment thread exploded right away. It was quite amazing to see the “reply” number jump into the hundreds.

Since we were moving to Boston, my wife sought out and found a similar forum for Boston mothers. Now consider this off-topic post from a Boston “mommy”:

“Does anyone know what the going rate is for maid service? ….I think I am underpaying mine…”

Do you think this woman throws in a few extra bucks when her steak at Outback is particularly tasty? Or pays 50 cents extra at the Mass Pike toll booth because the road is clean? (No way she is smart enough to have EZ-Pass or Fast Lane)?

This “mommy” thinks she is being compassionate by presuming that her maid is so damn stupid as to be unable to discern a fair wage for herself. Boston is not like rural Brazil or anything – despite being the anti-business exemplar; there are plenty of other job opportunities for this UN-exploited maid.

This “mommy” would definitely vote for William Galvin for governor.

Now for today’s last example of economic illiteracy that will certainly “one-up” its predecessors:

Hillary Clinton speaking to her “choir” in Aspen. From the Weekly Standard,

Hillary wasn't done giving us her mad moments in her Aspen Ideas Festival speech (and don't think Mad wouldn't have a field day with the concept of an Ideas Festival, either). Later in her remarks, she delivered this eye-popping economic analysis for the Colorado audience: "Ours will be the last generation to rely so exclusively on fossil fuels." She added that the "ups and downs of the global oil market cost the U.S. economy $7 trillion last year . . . almost enough to pay off our entire national debt."

Seven trillion dollars? That would surprise most economists, as well as Mad magazine readers who learned both to question authority and check sources, since the entire American GDP for 2004 amounted to $11.735 trillion according to the BEA; $1.5 trillion came from imports of goods. Energy goods (both domestic and imported) only accounted for $250 billion, making it extremely unlikely that price fluctuations in a single import commodity market could have generated anywhere near the kind of economic damage Senator Clinton cited.


Ignore the vapid global warming rhetoric and consider the ridiculous $7 trillion number she threw out there. It wouldn’t be near accurate to call her economically illiterate – I am going to have to search for a new term, maybe on a psychiatric website.

Given the long memory of today's de-monopolized internet media, I can't believe any aspiring politician would utter such nonsense. But I can see why Hillary likes to ban the (free) press from her "choir" fundraisers.