Slouching Towards Oblivion

Showing posts with label supply and demand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label supply and demand. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

It Occurs To Me

What is it with "conservatives" that gets them so hung up on The Supply Side of every-damned-thing?

Wanna talk Economics?
They can't think of anything but cutting taxes for themselves, and a harsh dose of Austerity for everybody else.  (Supply Side Economics, btw is self-defeating because it leads to a slow deflationary death spiral - which, in case ya hadn't noticed, is pretty much what we're in right now)
Global Labor Arbitrage
Supply Side Economics

How 'bout that War on Drugs?
We concentrate almost solely on interdiction and putting millions of users in prison (which may look like working the demand side, but actually only serves the purpose of the suppliers by conveniently gathering all the customers in one place) - again, just working the supply side.

Yeah OK, we try to get "our partners" in places like Afghanistan and Colombia to help us, but c'mon, they don't actually do anything helpful that I can see.  And why is that?  Because there's a huge demand for their #1 export, and they're not stupid enough to shut down the drug trade on their end because that's what keeps them all in power.  Plus, you've been preaching Supply Side at 'em for 30 years - do ya really think the message they've gotten is that they should cut back on THE SUPPLY!?!.  So what does it get us?  Prisons that are so crowded they've become little feudal states that generally operate outside the control of anything "government" can do, for one thing.  And don't get me started on the total FUBAR of the Privatized Prison Industry, and the connections to DoD and Defense Contractors and DEA and BATF and Capitol Hill and Wall Street and and and.

Well what about Abortion then?
"Conservatives" seem to think we don't need to do anything but shut down all the clinics and harass women at every turn in an attempt to shut 'em up - which means they're all over the supply side again, while fervently struggling against everything that's been proven effective in preventing the need (ie: demand) for abortion.  Family planning and birth control.  Equal pay for women.  Early and honest Sex Ed.  Free condoms.  Public education.  Lots of public information.  Public women's healthcare centers. etc.

And wait just a damned minute there - in a system of unfettered free market capitalism, isn't it supposed to be a good thing to have lots and lots of clinics doing all manner of abortions on demand?  As long as they turn a profit, isn't that what y'all keep telling us is what god intended?

So guess what, kids - there are actually two sides to these things, and if you just stop for a minute, you might see that working the Demand side is a lot more effective in practically every instance.  At the very least, ya gotta work the Demand side as well as the Supply side.

Every time you turn around, it's like "conservatives" are boosting the fuck outa the Supply Side approach (which doesn't work, tho' they keep insisting it must), while slashing and bashing away at Demand Side solutions (which they insist can't work, when it's actually and obviously what does work).

Why do ya suppose they do all that?