Price Controls: Impractical and Immoral

Price Controls: Impractical and Immoral (Free Enterprise Vol. 1 No. 1 2010)
By: Joshua Lipana

Against overwhelming evidence, price-control proponents still think price controls are necessary and moral to help people who cant buy their food, yet time and time again its been seen that price controls bring nothing but catastrophe for everyone in nations who implement it. If the goal is to make food more available to people than this is precisely the kind of thing which should not be done; Price controls cause shortages of goods because of two simple reasons: supply and demand, people will not supply as much at a lower price as they will at a higher price, some businessmen that will repay their costs and earn a profit when the price of a certain product is 100 Pesos will not cover their costs when the price is 60 Pesos. If you force them to work at a loss, they will simply stop supplying the goods; which is the only rational and proper thing to do. Price controls do the exact opposite of what they are intended to do if the intent is to give more people access to goods.

More importantly price controls violate the individual rights of businessmen to sell their products at the price that  they want. People have no right to enslave the producers of goods regardless of any need or consideration. Need is not and cannot be a claim on what someone else has produced, anything less would mean slavery or socialism.

The history of price controls goes way back, from the time of thieving monarchies, to the time of thieving Communists, to the very present where the so called “21st century Socialists” in 3rd world countries are now giving price controls another try. Not discouraged at all by the past calamities brought about by this most unjust policy, Hugo Chaves declared price controls in Venezuela. The results? Nearly its entire farming industry went out of business. How Mr. Chavez expected farmers to work at a loss or work with a gun pointed to their heads would baffle the mind, that is, had he not been a self-avowed Socialist, which then makes his economic stupidity quite understandable. Price controls have brought nothing but catastrophes to any nation or state that has tried it, short term or long term they are bad for the economy, they cause shortages of products most needed, and most importantly they violate the individual rights of man.

Climategate: A Short Report

Climategate: A Short Report (Free Enterprise Vol. 1 No. 1 2010)
By: Joshua Lipana

Thousands of E-mails hacked from the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in England have now been posted on the internet that reveals a systemic use of deception by the higher up’s in the scientific establishment of the environmentalist / Global warming movement. This scandal now known as Climategate appears to show that climate scientists from the University of East Anglia colluded to withhold scientific information, deleted e-mails and raw data to prevent data from being revealed under the Freedom of Information Act and manipulated data to make the case for global warming appear stronger than it is.

The Philippine government has decided to support any policy that the climate alarmists put forward. No matter how dubious the scientific backing or how anti-business it may be. Every proposal that these greens put forward are anti-capitalist and call for more controls.

This story got very little traction here due to the fact that practically everyone has joined the “green” bandwagon. I hope this short report devoted to the scandal will at least inform more people about a very important story that deeply affects our Republic.

Here are some of the E-mails. I edited them for brevity and the emphasis are mine. For more information about this scandal and to see the thousands of E-mails visit a very good website which has all the E-mails pertaining to Climategate “www.eastangliaemails.com” you may also simply google “Climategate”:

On Sep 4, 2009, at 5:24 PM, Nick McKay wrote:

[…] We had higher values as warmer in the reconstruction, so it looks to me like we got it wrong, unless we decided to reinterpret the record which I don’t remember. Darrell, does this sound right to you? […]

Nick
———————
From: Phil Jones <p.jones@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>
To: ray bradley <rbradley@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>,mann@xxxxxxxxx.xxx, mhughes@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject: Diagram for WMO Statement
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 13:31:15 +0000
Cc: k.briffa@xxxxxxxxx.xxx,t.osborn@xxxxxxxxx.xxx

Dear Ray, Mike and Malcolm,

[…] I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline. […]
Thanks for the comments, Ray.

Cheers
Phil

From: Kevin Trenberth <trenbert@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>
To: Michael Mann <mann@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>
Subject: Re: BBC U-turn on climate
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:57:37 -0600
Cc: Stephen H Schneider <shs@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>, Myles Allen ……more…
[…]
The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a
travesty that we can’t. The CERES data published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate.
[…]
Kevin
————————-
From: Phil Jones <p.jones@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>
To: mann@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject: Fwd: CCNet: PRESSURE GROWING ON CONTROVERSIAL RESEARCHER TO DISCLOSE SECRET DATA
Date: Mon Feb 21 16:28:32 2005
Cc: “raymond s. bradley” <rbradley@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>, “Malcolm Hughes” <mhughes@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>

Mike, Ray and Malcolm,
The skeptics seem to be building up a head of steam here […] The IPCC comes in for a lot of stick.
Leave it to you to delete as appropriate !
Cheers
Phil
PS I’m getting hassled by a couple of people to release the CRU station temperature data.
Don’t any of you three tell anybody that the UK has a Freedom of Information Act !
————————
From: Phil Jones <p.jones@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>
To: “Michael E. Mann” <mann@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>
Subject: IPCC & FOI
Date: Thu May 29 11:04:11 2008

Mike,

Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4?
Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment – minor family crisis.
Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t
have his new email address.
We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.
I see that CA claim they discovered the 1945 problem in the Nature paper!!
Cheers
Phil

Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
University of East Anglia
Norwich Email p.jones@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
NR4 7TJ  UK
———————
From: Phil Jones [mailto:p.jones@xxxxxxxxx.xxx]
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 11:30 AM
To: Wahl, Eugene R; Caspar Ammann
Subject: Wahl/Ammann

Gene/Caspar,
Good to see these two out. Wahl/Ammann doesn’t appear to be in CC’s
online first, but comes up if you search. You likely know that McIntyre will check this one to make sure it hasn’t changed since the IPCC close-off date July 2006! Hard copies of the WG1 report from CUP have arrived here today.

Ammann/Wahl – try and change the Received date! Don’t give those
skeptics something to amuse themselves with.

Cheers
Phil

SAYING NO TO THE TEXT TAX

SAYING NO TO THE TEXT TAX (Free Enterprise Vol. 1 No. 1 2010)
By: Joshua Lipana

In a rare moment of rationality Senators from across the aisle are opposing the Text Tax; Mar Roxas expressed a wonderful assessment of our situation: “Our people need tax relief, not more taxes. We are better spenders of our money against government spending it for us.” [1] Senator Chiz Escudero said in Filipino “They don’t want to cut the VAT on oil. They don’t want to cut the income taxes of minimum wage earners. Now they’re thinking of more taxes, I think that’s too much,” [2]  Other lawmakers are also opposing this abhorrent proposal such as Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and many others.

Globe Telecom Inc. is spot on when they say that this proposal is “one  of the worst anti-consumer legislations ever made.” [3]  The services the telecom industry provides us are beyond affordable and their promos make it almost dirt cheap to call and text family and friends. “What we have at hand is one of the worst anti-consumer legislations that, once implemented, will destroy the viability of these aggressive promos that the public today benefits from, like free and unlimited SMS. The days of unlimited and free SMS will be numbered,” [4] said Globe Chief Legal Counsel and Senior Advisor Atty. Rodolfo Salalima in a statement.

The economic impact of this will be disastrous, foreign investors are already hesitant to do business here due to our regulations and corrupt bureaucracy a new tax on the best industries in this country is not going to help us in the least. Smart Communications Inc. is also opposing this measure and warning us rightfully that this bill will drive away investors.

OFW groups have also promised to fight this bill.

TXTPower[5] president Anthony Ian Cruz rightfully noted that people already pay a 12% vat for the services the telecom industries provide us. “For example, the Arroyo government charges VAT amounting to P3.60 for every P30 electronic load, P36.00 for every P300 call card, P144 for every P1,200 monthly postpaid subscription fee,” [6] said Cruz .

One of the odder arguments being used by the text tax advocates is that the proposed tax is going to discourage people from wasting time on texting and the like. This one doesn’t need a long answer; People’s texting habits are none of their business.

More importantly this proposal is evil because it seeks to single out a particular industry and punish it precisely because it’s successful. The telecommunications industry earned every peso their making and in the process has provided us with a service that’s cheap, reliable and something that we as consumers want. This Text Tax proposal is an attack on wealth that was honestly and rightfully earned. Those companies earned their profits through productive achievement, and confiscating the wealth that they earned is deeply immoral; I shout as every Filipino should; NO to the Text Tax!

Footnotes:
[1] 1/10/2008 INQUIRER.net  “Senators oppose tax on text” By Veronica Uy
[2] Ibid.
[3]   abs-cbnNews.com 09/10/2009 ‘No more unlimited SMS with text tax bill’
[4] Ibid.
[5] Although the following statement from TXTPower is quite good I do not support this organization in any way to due their other advocacies which are clearly statist.
[6]  TXTPower.com “Taxpayers Revolt Vs. Text Tax” 9/ 9 / 2009