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Oregon passes "Buy Oregon First" bill. Do we not have any economists in this lame brain state?

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Be happy that you don't have a state sales tax.

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Something just dawned on me. The desire to tax is the same fallacy as the broken window fallacy: It's not being aware that there are unseen consequences beyond step 1. It's amazing how prevailing such elementary ignorance is. For some reason economic illiteracy so mainstream that it is not looked down upon, you can be ignorant of primary school economics and still be hailed as a philosopher king.

"They all look upon progressing material improvement as upon a self-acting process." - Ludwig von Mises
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Merlin replied on Tue, May 3 2011 2:28 AM

Man, when Rothbard taunted states to pass ‘buy first’ laws he meant that as a jest, something no one would be willing to take on. We have gone a long way since than, it seems.

The Regression theorem is a memetic equivalent of the Theory of Evolution. To say that the former precludes the free emergence of fiat currencies makes no more sense that to hold that the latter precludes the natural emergence of multicellular organisms.
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Clayton replied on Tue, May 3 2011 2:39 AM

Actually, it's kind of the essence of any government. The US government does its damnedest to ensure not only that it purchases goods and services from US producers but that all residents of US government-controlled territories also purchase from US producers. With inflationary subsidy of its exporters, each government is attempting to be home to all the world's production. This is not because governments care about production per se but, rather, because it is much easier and lucrative to soak a small number of large-cap companies than it is to extract taxes from billions of relatively poor people. If you force people in Zaire and Tajikistan to buy "US made" goods and services then you can effectively tax those people through the prices they pay for the goods produced in the US where the tax revenues are collected from the US producer.

"Economy of scale" applies to taxation as much as to any industry.

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nuksukow replied on Tue, May 3 2011 10:08 AM

Well, I posted this to the economics section of Reddit as well. I was quickly corrected. Mercantilism is good because the multiplier effect outweighs the negatives. keeps the dough flowing! devil

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William replied on Tue, May 3 2011 12:05 PM

Someone told me they had something like "gas stations must hire a hadicap person to wash windows rule" too.  Not sure if that is true.

But if Ralph Nader can get 10% of the vote on a consistent basis, the state is probably hopeless.  I would prefer an average run of the mill left of center yuppie corporatist democrat that is "part of the system" any day of the week over an actual leftist.

"I am not an ego along with other egos, but the sole ego: I am unique. Hence my wants too are unique, and my deeds; in short, everything about me is unique" Max Stirner
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I dunno about handicap quotas, but it is illegal for us to pump our own gas. CREATING JOBS #WINNING

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William replied on Tue, May 3 2011 3:53 PM

yeah that was it, I thought they had some PC quotas to fill.  Not sure though, I heard this once 3 years ago

"I am not an ego along with other egos, but the sole ego: I am unique. Hence my wants too are unique, and my deeds; in short, everything about me is unique" Max Stirner
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Clayton replied on Tue, May 3 2011 6:29 PM

nuksukow:

I dunno about handicap quotas, but it is illegal for us to pump our own gas. CREATING JOBS #WINNING

Unless you're a cop or a big corporation with a fleet of vehicles, then you can go to a cardlock station... how egalitarian...

I just about got out of my vehicle and fueled it the other day at an Albertson's gas station... I was waiting literally FIVE WHOLE MINUTES at the pump, there were just two other cars under the carport but the damn minimum wage retard pumping gas was just taking his sweet time! On average, I probably waste a good two minutes waiting around at the pump (that is, in addition to any wait time to get to the pump). I fill my tank about once a week and I think I'm pretty average driver. If you multiply that out over all 4 million Oregonians (let's assume there are 2 million drivers in Oregon), that is a wasted 4 million minutes per week or 24.3 million hours of wasted time per year!

Oh, but it creates demand for low-end labor! Good God people are stupid.

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