A Penny For My Thought Blog

There is generally an advantage to being first in line as long as one can see what is coming. To be the first to enter or the first to leave, to have the first choice or be the first chosen is usually preferable to being last and left with little or nothing to chose from. Getting the pick of the litter or one of something that is scarce is often worth an extra cost to many people.

Now imagine a game where there is a supply of money to be given away and all you have to do to get some of that money is be part of the viewing audience. How can I get a ticket to see the show?  If the amount of money to be given away is great enough I might even lobby some kind of official to let me in. Perhaps I could gather a bunch of acquaintances together and purchase a package deal or together we could exhibit our power to those in charge by voting for them as a block. If only I could be part of the audience to be paid to see the show. I would feel very special and be very grateful to whoever gave me the ticket!

Unfortunately, literally unfortunately, we are finding that these games are not imaginary. They are political games played by both parties with their respective, viewing, special interests. Some of the games have been played a long time such as Social Security and farm crop subsidies. There have been many warnings to not play the game with the military industrial complex that we have never heeded. The games being played in the medical fields, the insurance fields and the banking fields are taking place daily on the political battle field and they may end up taking no prisoners. The housing game may be near an end and the education game we hardly realize we are playing.

The housing game literally ran out of money and where it will end nobody knows but it is ending. The rules of the game for the auto companies have been game changers with some teams being subsidized and others not. Most people presently giving money to Social Security recipients, out of the goodness of their heart, do not expect to be playing the same game when they retire. Everyone seems to want to view the medical game, no matter the cost, till their dyeing day, from the cheapest seat possible. Educators and their students behave as though whatever is learned should be encouraged and paid for as though it has commercial value: they are finding that some kinds of education will produce little in the material world to justify their cost; yet, they ask for a greater monetary reward as real compensation for the spiritual guidance of their masterly thinking.

The primary groups that are first in line at the trough of free money are recipients of Social Security, Medicare, Home Loans, Student Loans and Businesses to Big to Fail. To be first in line is to be given special treatment – generally it means that one is first to receive money that is either printed out of thin air or money that is taxed away from a person presently producing a good or service. To be first in line means always having some money to spend for that something special: it does not matter whether it is social welfare, a hospitalization, a house one has little interest in keeping, an education for a job that is just spiritually satisfying, or that business that employs people producing things at a cost that consumers do not want to pay; what matters to those giving or receiving free stuff is that the game continue. Being first in line means being able to continue spending in the same manner as before; it means not having to conserve, change or mend ways like those that are not first. Keeping ones position of first in line is important for security reasons. Perhaps, for those that are first and not second, because they are of primary importance, the money they receive could be indexed to the cost of inflation and be protected from rising prices in general; that way the people that are first in line will always have more dollars to spend on things than those people that are second or third or fourth; those that are last in line may be hurt by inflation most but they are least important anyway. Ah, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer through inflation simply because rich are generally first and the poor are generally last in line.

The free money given to the people that are first in line affects the prices of the goods and services they are spending the money on. They do not have to consider the prices (costs and benefits) of things that are essentially free to them, such as medical care or education. Those people that come second and that are not as special and that have to earn the money they will be spending value their money differently than those receiving free money; the medical care or education they want to purchase must be judged to be worth the cost of the desired benefit. Dollars spent freely drive up costs to those whose dollars are dearly earned. Imagine being in a business where the pool of money being spent on its goods or services is growing every year and where  the people who have been given money to spend for those goods and services do not have to be highly concerned with how or why the money is spent. Imagine what it would be like if many of the people did not even know how much money was spent for treatment as is often the case in the medical field. Imagine what business would be like if people that used its service could get as much money as they wanted (through student loans) to buy its service without having to consider the future return of value on what they are buying (as is like the case for higher education). There is no reason to economize in either the field of medicine or education because there seems to be no upper limit to the supply of money given to chase the limited supply of goods and services provided by either field. The inflation in both the medical and education field is seemingly out of control precisely because they are first in line for the seemingly free and unlimited dollars.

Of course there is a desire by people and businesses that have to pay out of their own pocket for the desired goods and services to have the costs contained somehow; but, talk of balancing both supply and demand for those goods and services is almost nonexistent. Talk leans in the direction of forcing suppliers to reduce prices in the face of increasing demand and of finding ways to increase the amount of money that can be spent for the goods and services available. Finding more money to spend for those goods and services just increases the demand for those very goods and services desired thus leading to higher prices. Setting a limit to the price paid (a price control) for a good or service will simply reduce its available supply; thus, it will raise the average price on a more limited supply of goods and services. Until we begin to limit the total amount of money that may be spent on any sum of goods and/or services that are desired the desire for those goods and services will be nearly insatiable and prices will continue to rise. As long as money is freely given and freely spent, those that receive that free money will demand a disproportionate amount of goods and services because of their given ability to disregard a concern for cost to benefit. As long as money is freely given and freely spent, those that do not receive the free money will be left to pay ever increasing prices for the left over goods and services still available to those concerned with cost and benefit.

Wouldn’t it be nice if those that were second could finally become first and leave it to those that were third and forth in line to pay the bill.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 1:45 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.