« Someone loves freedom... | Main | Bio of Edmund Phelps »
December 9, 2006
Well, I don't know about that...
"What could be more generous than keeping your lamps unlit and your plate unfilled, leaving more fuel for others to burn and more food for others to eat?" That's part of Steve Landsburg's defense of Scrooge in Slate. You likely recall that Scrooge, the protagonist of A Christmas Carol is a huge miser.
Ilya Somin over at The Volokh Conspiracy points out a few obvious ethical criticisms. Note also, that while avoiding consumption does hold down the costs for everyone, Scrooge certainly doesn't do so in an equitable manner. He directly subsidizes people in direct proportion to the amount of wealth they have, because Scrooge's removal of his income from society acts as an open market operation on the money supply. Even if he doesn't hoard the money as cash and instead invests it, he reduces prices of the things he'd consume if he weren't a miser. Since as an old man he'd be limited in how much food and clothing he could really use, he'd likely use it in the manner that rich old men are want to do, art, collecting, fine dining, the arts. Since he's competing with other rich men for these things, his thriftiness would have a larger impact on the prices in those markets. Given that some of these things have a totally inelastic supply, all the more so.
Posted by OneEyedMan at December 9, 2006 7:59 AM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)