http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6243644.stm
Iran fuel rations spark violence
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Iranians set fire to a petrol station in Tehran
There were angry protests as people rushed to buy petrol
At least 12 petrol stations have been torched in the Iranian capital, Tehran, after the government announced fuel rationing for private vehicles.
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Iran’s petrol is heavily subsidised, sold at about a fifth of its real cost.
The price of 1,000 rials ($0.11) per litre makes Iran one of the cheapest countries in the world for motorists.
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Sigh, gooferments can’t repeal the Law of Supply and Demand.
Price floors are a hidden tax. Price subsidies are a hidden tax.
Markets are peaceful “elections” where competing needs for the same good are award to the one whose “need” is the greatest. In a complex calculus, the market determines who gets what. It’s truly amazing. Rarely is everyone happy or satisfied, but the market peacefully allows us all to cooperate and get along.
When the heavy hand of gooferment comes along, it mucks stuff up. Causes friction and violence. It reinforces the zero-sum scarcity mentality.
The market on the other hand ensure that there is “plenty for everybody”. Higher prices have several simultaneous effects.
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Everyone conserves. Three buck a gallon gas is used much more wisely that one buck a gallon.
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High prices award products to those who “need” them the most (i.e., willing to pay more). Those whose need is less (i.e., won’t pay the high price) wait until the price comes down.
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Producers ship more of a product to where the return on investment is higher. Plywood in NOLA after Katrina was earning more than in your local home depot.
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Supply reduced locally encourages conservation and / or delayed gratification.
In short the market is our benefactor. Actually all of those fellow human beings represented in the market are working to satisfy our needs. Not out of self-sacrifice. But, out of a desire to get our “certificate of appreciation” (i.e., money). They can then use those to satisfy their own needs. In a giant calculus designed to make us all live happily together as one big happy family. (Move your elbow!) OK, maybe not happy, but not killing each other either.
Gooferment bad. (Any gooferment!) Markets peaceful and good.
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Reinke Faces Life 