Elitism is Everywhere These Days

Three examples.

1. Libertarians: "See, the public at large is stupid, because it rejects the ideas of economists and economists are always right. Democracy sucks."

2. Conservatives: "You know who deserves more credit for their dedication and hard work? People who inherit boatloads of money."

3. TIME Magazine: "Look! A rich guy and a celebrity! I wish they ran our government." (swoon)

I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little tired of this. Money is not the arbiter of intelligence, capability, or merit, nor does it necessarily flow towards people who display those qualities -- yet we see the above kinds of arguments in our public discourse all the time. I'm not sure whether they come out of a misguided faith in market capitalism or a fetish for money (if there's a difference); but it's damn time we stopped listening to people who consistently glorify the most powerful at the expense of everyone else.

--
(big h/t to Sadly, No!, which is always good at pouncing on this stuff)

Big Crisis: Ferrari shortage!

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the rich are having to take a number in line for their Ferraris these days.

Well boo hoo.

Seriously! Ferrari has a wait list of almost 2 years, despite the fact that it is producing 5,700 vehicles a year. Can you believe that people are just slobbering over the chance to drop $652k on a car that needs oil that costs $60 a quart just to stay within its warrantee?

Hmm, this reminds me of something I wrote about before. We have peers of ours being hospitalized to help our security guards earn 4k more a year, while these people are banging down the door and buying multiple cars at once just to get their car order placed higher on the list. And did I mention that the brake pads for one of these babies costs $6k, and the ceramic rotors for a healthy $24k?

Don't think that Ferrari is the only luxury item placed under stress right now. The WSJ article also mentions that yachts and hedge funds are also becoming saturated with really really rich people. Poor things, I do hope that they can find something useful to do with all that cash while they wait for their toys to arrive.

Can one man add more to the economy than a nation of 1.8 million people?

James Simons is a man. He wakes up, goes to sleep, chooses his clothes, get peeved when taxis splash him, and will die some day much like the rest of us. Last year, the economy valued him at 1.7 billion dollars.

Lesotho is a small country surrounded by South Africa. Around 1.8 million people live there. It has roads, airports, mines, factories. It is governed by a king and a prime minister; it has been populated for around 40,000 years. Last year, the economy valued it at 1.5 billion dollars.

Neoliberal economists will tell you that the unregulated economy is the fairest and most impartial view into the economic importance of any entity—person, factory, nation, or continent. Dollar value floats to a certain point not because of any arbitrary seizure of power but by a meritocratic assignment of wealth to those who are most economically productive.

But can we possibly continue to assign currency to this belief when it so obviously runs in the face of common sense? It is hard to imagine any explanation for why one man could be esteemed more productive than a nation of 1.8 million people. Even if all of those 1.8 million people were making mud cakes, one per day, well, I'd say 657 million mudcakes by sheer force of productive output alone is more impressive than what Mr. Simons must do at his desk every day.

And as much as I'm willing to cede to the twentieth century practical experience that free incentive has the effect of making people produce more and better things, I find it somewhat ludicrous to imagine that holding up the example of one man who is more economically powerful than thirty of this world's nation-states is doing much in the way of seducing anyone to put in that extra late shift or not slack off on the assembly line.