Friday, April 28, 2023

Make Your Riches, but in the Process, You Cannot Rip Someone Off


If something is wrong, make a law against it. Worry about whether you will be able to enforce it once you have the law, but don't let your worrying about enforcing it prevent you from making the law in the first place.

You never make the second step unless you take the first.

So, consider whether we ought to take that first step on this: a law against charging more for a good or service than what it is reasonably worth. People are hurt if you charge too much for medicine. Either they can't afford it, or the insurance company is forced to pay out unnecessarily. People are hurt when military contractors charge more than is reasonable for their tanks and jets. Their executives take the profits, use them to build homes high on the hill, and . . . the taxpayer pays for it.

A law against charging more than reasonable would be, well, radical. It would be one of the most society-altering laws ever. Some would argue with that; they would say, No, societies have tried shifting income to the proletariat before -- its called socialism.

No, this is not socialism. It is not a redistribution of wealth. It is just saying, Go about making your riches, but in the process, you cannot rip someone off.

No, I'm not saying throw away the free market system; I'm just saying don't let the free market system throw away us.

Where would we draw the line? What would be considered "reasonable" profit? We might say, Let a person get rich, but not filthy rich. What would be considered "filthy rich," then?

I don't know. But, start with a law saying you cannot charge more for goods or services than is reasonable. New laws often have to be adjusted and fine-tuned -- tweaked. But, don't be afraid of making the law simply because you know it's going to need to be tweaked.

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