Wednesday, December 27, 2023

And a more complex view of Christmas


Georgia Taxpayers Lose $160,000 for Every Job Created by Film Tax Credits.

***

The Wall Street Journal reports on a Los Angeles low‐​income project, Lorena Plaza, that has taken 17 years to complete because of neighborhood opposition, lawsuits, and zoning and environmental rules. The Plaza’s 49 units are costing $34.2 million to build, or about $700,000 each.

***

Now, as Professor Mises has emphasised, given central ownership and control of the means of production, the registering of individual pulls and and resistances by a mechanism of prices and costs is excluded by definition. It follows therefore that the decisions of the executive must necessarily be “arbitrary.” That is to say, they must be based on its valuations – not on the valuations of consumers and producers. This at once simplifies the form of choice. Without the guidance of a price system, the organisation of production must depend on the valuations of the final organiser.--Robbins

***

And a more complex view of Christmas:

The Magi

Now as at all times I can see in the mind's eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depths of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of silver hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary's turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.
--Yeats

No comments: