If you’d like to see the future that Alexandria Ocasio Cortez would like for us all we can use this example – her own – of the $7 croissant. It’s possible to do a slightly deeper dive into the underlying economics but then that would require her to have a knowledge of David Ricardo and some clue as to the notion of rental values. As is described here:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Anyone want to take a punt on what the rent is for a croissant stall at LaGuardia? It was actually the section on coffee prices which interested me most in Tim Harford’s The Undercover Economist, in which he pointed out that even in busy London stations coffee sellers don’t make much money because the landowner simply increases the rent. In other words, it’s the landowners via rents who make money in prime locations, not the operators of businesses.[/perfectpullquote]That chapter of Undercover Economist is indeed the best modern explanation of David Ricardo on rent. One lesson of which might be that old dead European white guys have something to teach us about the modern world. We’ll not be able to understand the prices in Starbucks – nor even why the UK arm paid so little tax for so long – without grasping the principles laid out in Ricardo, published in 1817.
But we can and should go further:
La Guardia is owned by the City of New York. It’s managed by a public interest bureaucracy called The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Ms. Ocasio Cortez desires that more – if not all given democratic socialism – of the American economy should be owned by government, run by public interest bureaucracies.
That is, the Ocasio Cortez plan for America – $7 croissants for everyone. Not really sure if that beats a chicken in every pot as a campaign slogan.
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Local governments originally went into non-monopoly service provision as exemplars to demonstrate what could be done. They are still a good example of what could be done with government-provided services. Want all your bakeries run by the state? Look at the existing state-run bakeries to see what the result would be.
I just farted and it was stinky. Where can I file this so I can be taxed accordingly?
You need to purchase methane emissions credits from the State to continue.
The Tweet is far more stupid. Do I think $15/hour is too much? Well, depends on what you are doing doesn't it? Which is why some get $15 and some get $1,500. I wouldn't pay this young lady $1.50/hour to Tweet this sort of stuff and come up with her "ideas".