thesack

further proof you don’t need an economics degree to appreciate the evils of government. one standard argument for government meddling in our lives is that in industries as large and complex as utilities—energy and telephone companies, mostly—costs of entry into the market are so high as to be entirely prohibitive, and so governments should grant monopolies to companies already in the field and then strictly regulate them; all in the name of protecting consumers, of course. the trouble is, or rather one of the many troubles is, that governments are everywhere and always prey to corruption derived from the power-seeking individual’s positive response to the special pleading of selfish interests, and so create distortions in the markets they purport to be overseeing. business may be heartless, but individual ambitions will always be squelched when they come into conflict with the overarching goal of profit maximization. a fine example of government’s spectacular inadequacy and mendaciousness was recorded last week when the State of Utah summarily fired its chief utilities regulator and consumer watchdog, my father Roger Ball. the details can be found in the following stories from the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News. for those who prefer to watch their news, a broadcast is available from KSL TV, Utah’s NBC affiliate. a decent op-ed piece is found in the Tribune as well, as is a terrible op-ed piece from obvious political pawn Pat Shea, a useless relic of the Clinton administration.


Roger J Ball, my father and Utah's erstwhile utilities regulator and consumer watchdog.

for those wishing to understand the fundamentally immoral nature of government, either call me or read Milton Friedman’s book, Free to Choose. Friedman is the 1976 Nobel Laureate in economics, and is pretty much the godfather of American and modern laissez-faire economics.