Once upon a time, an evil witch gazed into the looking glass and asked, “Mirror mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”
“Don’t waste my time,” shot back the mirror. “Fairness is a myth. Everybody is too hysterical scrambling for pork. ‘Fair’ is the word they use to snow each other into thinking they are not being robbed by special-favor legislation.”
At that, the witch stormed off. She had secretly hoped the mirror would tell her she was the fairest so she could use that in her lobbying efforts.
Representatives interviewed from the John Locke Foundation said facts and logic lead to more accurate projections than mirrors with purported magical powers.
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Today, Representative Tim Moffitt (R-Buncombe) and Senator Tom Apodaca (R-Henderson) are in the news for supporting HB495 and S473, respectively, bills that would purportedly bolster the solar energy market, allowing it to hire thousands of new workers.
Vilified is the John Locke Foundation’s Daren Bakst. Bakst reiterated the no-brainer that any legislation to favor one industry necessarily introduces market inefficiencies. People would be using the cheaper alternative if it were more aligned with their values. Rather than blowing smoke rings with pipedreams of thousands of new, unspecified jobs, Bakst calls attention to the jobs that would be lost to make room for the new ones, and the personal income that would be lost in the average utility bill increases necessary to support the program. Profits would land in the lap of solar outfitters and utility companies.
Bakst argued if the legislature were trying to pass special legislation to favor coal production, he would oppose it also. This horrified readers, who suppose independent thought is a myth, and everybody at the JLF is having their strings pulled by corporate donors. Implicit in the aether is an assumption that people need some kind of uber-person, like Barak Obama or Sarah Palin, to put words in their mouths to advocate for some special interest or another. Ergo, the JLF’s commitment to the free market, based on logic and vindicated by a wealth of historic data, is certainly a smokescreen for an evil plot to use government to get the best of the other guys.