June 15, 2024
If you want the material cornucopia international trade has on offer, then be willing to tolerate some job loss—though, probably not on net.
If you want higher wages for some via minimum wages, then countenance unemployment for others—or, at least less air-conditioning.
If you want lower prices for “stuff,” then allow for a stream or a forest to get a bit dirtier, at least in the short run.
If you want to tax the rich, then prepare to accept less capital accumulation, and—eventually—lower (than they would have been) wages for the poor.
If you want a job that pays more, then get ready to relinquish some family time.
If you want to stamp out trials by poison ingestion in contemporary Liberia, then fortify yourself for even less criminal justice there than already exists.
If you want to beautify the countryside by banning roadside billboards in the manner of Vermont, then admit you’ll have less information about beneficial exchange opportunities and that sellers won’t be able to offer credible commitments to quality as easily.
If you want to put a man on the moon, then know that a cure for the common cold will be delayed.
If you want to stamp out illicit substances, then prepare for black markets full of violence, higher potency, and tainted drugs.
If you want to force dastardly landlords to provide basic amenities, then brace for rents to rise by an amount that necessarily wipes out any gains to tenants.
If you want to consume more in the future, then acknowledge you must cut back in the present.
If you want to provide a cushion to job-seekers, then accept some will prolong their job search and consume additional leisure.
If you want to prosecute “price-gougers,” then see that supplies will flow more sluggishly into a storm-stricken region.
If you want to crush a magical capsule that will instantly purify the smoggy L.A. air, then note that L.A. renters will pay more.
If you want more X, then recognize you’ll have less Y.
If, then.