Exclusion and Depletion of Goods

Going global - Photo: Ileana Johnson

Keynesian economists talk about market failures such as public goods and private goods. Public goods are, in their description, “socially valuable commodities” which cannot be financed by private enterprise because the prices would not be “socially desirable.” (read that as very expensive)

It is their opinion that the “government must pay for public goods.” Examples of public goods they give include “everything from national defense to coastal lighthouses.”

Public goods are identified as any goods that cannot be depleted by the users or that can exclude people from using them. Spraying an area for mosquitoes that cause malaria and other diseases benefits everyone and so does clearing a street of snow.

“If a country provides a strong military, every citizen receives its protection, even persons who do not want it.”

Foolishly rejecting border protection (public good) from illegal and dangerous intruders at the border, some of whom may harbor illnesses of public concern, falls under the category of irrational behavior of those who reject such protection for all but lock their own homes, surround them with fences, and have guns.

Non-paying users of public goods cannot be excluded from enjoying such goods, not to mention that it would be difficult to collect fees for the benefits public goods provide. That is what Keynesian economists call “free-rider problem.”

Illegal aliens, non-paying users of public goods, enjoy our roads, public parks, frolic disrespectfully in pools designed as memorials to our WWI and WWII veterans, and send their children to public schools.

Additionally, they receive Social Security Income even though they’ve never paid into the trust fund and collect earned income tax credits for their children although they seldom pay income taxes to the IRS. They do pay sales taxes. They also have free medical care through Medicaid and Medicare, depending on age, police protection, fire protection, and can use public libraries.

Would people pay, let’s say $10,000 a year each, to support national defense?  Without government involvement, such a public good would not be provided, argue Keynesian economists. Would it not? What about mercenary soldiers?

Another misleading implication is that the supply of a public good is not depleted by an additional user and thus the marginal opportunity cost of serving an additional user is zero. It is certainly true in some instances.

But is that true if an additional illegal alien child is added to a classroom and he/she does not speak English, needs translators, specialized teachers, specialized textbooks, tutoring, religious accommodations, and are carriers of diseases such as measles, TB, hepatitis, Chagas disease, Honduran flu, just to name a few?

What about public health providers in counties’ health departments who become overwhelmed with non-paying customers who take advantage of “free” services? What about ER rooms in many hospitals, flooded with non-paying illegal alien customers?

Who pays the bill for these public goods? Does an additional user of free medical care or welfare programs cost the generous society at large zero? One could argue that by treating them for free, we prevent further spread of disease and it is thus a necessary cost to society.

Do illegal aliens who use state parks and public beaches really cost society nothing for its use? Ask the people who must clean behind their picnics on the beach or at the park. And how much damage do they really do to the environment? Does that bear no additional cost to society?

A private good is explained by Keynesian economists as depletable and excludable – depletable as in ‘used up’ when someone consumes it and excludable when someone who does not pay for it can be kept from enjoying it.

This is certainly abomination to leftist collectivism where everyone should “share” everything.  (the Latin word “communis” means “shared, common”). In the reality of collectivism, the communists pay lip service to “everyone owns everything” but nobody can lay claim to anything, not even an apple picked off a tree from a large orchard if one is hungry. There are harsh legal penalties for picking food or for taking anything from the collectivist farm or factory for one’s personal use.

Keynesian economists agree that “communities” have devoted a large proportion of government expenditures and of municipal budgets to finance public goods because they “generate substantial external benefits,” i.e. national defense, public health, police and fire protection, and research.

It appears that the sanctuary state of California is now devoting large expenditures to providing free medical care and insurance to “low income illegal aliens” (if they are in our country illegally, how do they know their income is low?) while American veterans are homeless, cannot find the promised medical care they need in VA hospitals, or are paying doctors in cash for visits, tests, and procedures because they cannot afford medical insurance premiums.

Collectivist economists view private goods with a jaundiced eye as people who cannot pay for private goods are being kept from enjoying them: a fancy yacht, a private airplane, membership in a private club, a golf club, or the country club.

There are “clubs” which exclude others for economic and non-economic motives. These “clubs” or “organizations” exclude others for reasons such as:

-          Pettiness (good ole boys’ and girls’ clubs)

-          Desire to control an issue(s) and outcome(s)

-          Greed (controlling seats on the exchange and Wall Street for example)

-          Specialty guilds for status, perceived skill, nobility, influence, and wealth

-          Vaunted academia membership and tenure for lefties

-          Economic exclusion to maintain high demand and earnings (lawyers, doctors, and others by limiting licensing)

-          Alumni and big donor clubs to sport teams

-          Influential church membership exclusions

-          World stage political exclusion (limiting membership)

-          Award winner’s member clubs

-          Peace, literature, art, film, and science prizes reserved almost exclusively for the political left

The most vociferous complainers about the existence of private goods and the dearth of public goods are lefties. Yet the left controls and “owns” the entire education system, most of the mainstream media, technology, social media, Wall Street, the justice system, the entertainment industry, most government departments, and the military industrial complex. Yet they keep whining in front of microphones and cameras that the downtrodden and illegals are abused and economically oppressed by capitalism and therefore socialism is a much better alternative. But none of them are in a hurry to move to Cuba and other socialist paradis they idolize.

I do not see any bleeding-heart lefties giving up their private goods to redress their constant complaints against capitalism.

Our Disposable Society

Photo: Ileana Johnson

In our throwaway society, where nothing is sacred anymore and is discarded with the speed of an unwanted darkening banana peel or a lit cigarette butt out the window of a moving car, the miser in me keeps coming out periodically.

Animals, love, life, family, relationships, marriages, appliances, trash, things recyclable, valuables, and trash are thrown out or disposed of mostly on purpose with no remorse and with a faster speed than you can say “I do.”

I sheepishly admit that I was washing Styrofoam containers and plastic forks from McDonald’s back in 1978. Why throw away perfectly reusable items, I thought, when I just landed from the land of poverty, misery, and long lines for food? We had rusty flatware on our table and chipped mismatched plates. My Grandpa used to wash her plates in a little tub of hot water boiled on the gas stove. And sometimes they still had dried food stuck to them from the previous meal. I tried to scrape it off and wipe it with a towel when she was not watching. I could not afford to be choosy or hurt her feelings.

My husband at the time made fun of my miser side because he could not possibly understand even though he visited my childhood home. No matter how many times he took me to the grocery store to see the laden shelves of abundance, my miser inner self could not comprehend so much food and I was certain, it would be gone the next day.

To this day, I wonder when we might have to be without food, water, and electricity, or things that everyone takes for granted, like toilet paper and vitamins. So I used to go from room to room and turn the lights off that my husband had left on and I still do today. Why waste energy? What if we had to be in the dark again like we were often under the socialist/communist regime that planned enough for them while the rest of us had to struggle hungry, cold, and in the dark after sunset?

I recycle today every piece of paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum that crosses my kitchen and my pantry. I even cut the plastic circles that hold bottles in place for fear that some wild animal might get stuck in them if the plastic winds up in a dumpster.

It pains me greatly and I do not understand how someone can throw a live human being or puppy tied in a garbage bag on the side of a deserted road, miles and miles away from a city, and leaves them there like trash, to suffocate and die? Isn’t the way we treat our helpless, animals, children, and old people, an indication of how civilized our society is?

We discard aborted fetuses, humans who are perfect and want to live because progressive society views that as a “choice.” We dump the elderly in nursing homes and seldom visit them. We depend on strangers to be good to them. We visit at holidays out of sheer guilt. There’s an influx of visitors at the nursing home around holidays, I suppose they don’t want to be left out of grandma or grandpa’s will.

We dispose of marriage quicker than we planned the lavish weddings – we get divorced at the drop of a hat. Nobody tries hard to get along anymore; everyone seeks instant gratification and personal happiness. If you ask, nobody is able to give a cohesive definition of what that personal happiness is. But rest assured, it revolves around the “me, myself, and I.”

The “selfish-me generation” throws away everything that is old, including their country, their citizenship, their culture, and their Constitution. Anything they do not understand but has been drilled into their heads by socialist teachers as evil must be discarded. If it is repeated enough times, it becomes their “social justice and equality” playbook.

We discard and abandon children to foster care like a used-up toy because we are too busy or too unable to care for our own offspring.

We euthanize those among us we do not wish to bother with anymore, and we abort the result of loveless hookups because nobody wants to be inconvenienced by a human breathing inside them.

We dump our friends on a whim – they just don’t share the same politics and ideology of the moment and are therefore no good. People we disagree with are suddenly poisonous snakes.

Yet grown Americans keep that one collegiate t-shirt from years ago, with holes everywhere, or that ratty disintegrating blanket one used to drag around for comfort as a toddler, or a favorite dog’s or cat’s toy. Those are holy objects that cannot be thrown away.

We keep that first car, often on cinder blocks, rusted out, and covered with weeds, spiders, and cobwebs. Sometimes rabbits, coons, and the occasional rattlesnake make their nests inside.

We keep that old moldy dresser that belonged to great-grandma because it’s an antique and it might be really valuable someday and fetch a big penny at auction.

We could feed an entire small country daily with the amount of food thrown away in locked dumpsters around the country, perhaps composted, incinerated, or buried later in the landfill.

Beautiful books of wisdom are recycled or buried all the time, in the drive to become a paperless society and to save the trees and the planet from progressive Armageddon. Who has time to read and learn something useful when there is the Internet?

Electronics are discarded as well, perhaps recycled and some buried in the city landfill. Valuable metals, plastics, and glass tubes get buried with them as well.

We throwaway a perfectly running TV that nobody wants in order to make room for a flat screen and top of the line smart TV, so smart, it can report anything you do to the mother ship.

And nobody has landline rotary dial or key punch phones anymore. They worked even when power went out. Those are dinosaurs, thrown away long time ago with the trash, not even recycled. They are buried somewhere in the city dump. When the smart grid goes out and it will eventually do, nobody will have a phone to communicate and answer that 3 a.m. call.

This disposable society mirrors the trashing of our culture in general, of our borders, our language, and our national identity. “We went through darkness so you can find the light." Why are you extinguishing it?