Quote:
Originally Posted by SeaKing
I have an even better idea. Instead of subsidizing a useless old fashioned book store and its owners and workers, why not just take these people out of their useless occupations and pay them to do useful work.
They can build roads, pick up trash, cut the grass in parks, do something that is beneficial to all.
Do we really need to keep the old book stores and buggy whip factories going?
If someone really wants to keep the old fashioned book store around but not enough to support them, we can put a few of them in museums. Maybe do a National Geographic special on them.
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Oh, you mean let the market efficiently allocate resources? That just seems crazy, and would end up forcing mom and pop shops to close up! Sure, no one is frequenting those mom and pop shops apparently, but at least by having them still around we get to maintain some flowery link to a past that we don't care very much about.
No, I definitely think the better idea is to force the public to pay higher prices to keep shops running that they don't actually shop in. My one wish is that this would have happened when I was a kid, when Mr. Cheney's bookstore was still around. Mr. Cheney was an old racist and refused to order in books, but dammit, his high prices and bad customer service shouldn't have meant his store wasn't a viable business! Luckily the Walmart that moved into town gave him a job as a greeter. So now whenever I'm in town visiting my folks, I go to that Walmart and there's Mr. Cheney, still cursing-out customers under his breath.