Comment a quote of Thomas Sowell «The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough...?
Thomas Sowell
«The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics».
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quote is correct.
It's tempting to consider goods that are so abundant as to seem to be in sufficient supply. But consider air. We need it clean enough to breathe. We have found that we cannot allow industry to pollute the air in the amount the cheapest processes would pollute it or we have insufficient clean air. So clean air is scarce enough in some locations as to cause governments to attach a high cost to consuming too much of it, as a polluting firm does.
Certain politicians would reject the cost for polluting, and insist that the air is clean enough, and that the studies that show cancer rates increasing in polluted cities are flawed, and that government needs to get out of the way of business and all will be fine.
Other politicians, thank god, don't care how much money the polluters give them, they still demand clean air.