TOS Blog: Daily Commentary from an Objectivist Perspective

Sunday, December 16, 2012

It’s a Wonderful Satire (of Government Force)

Posted by Ari Armstrong at 7:30 am ET

Two new Christmas-themed videos promote (respectively) sound economics and the right to control one’s own wealth. Both videos justly and humorously condemn, through satire, instances of government force.

“Deck the Halls with Macro Follies” from EconStories promotes a fake Christmas album with such “hits” as “Income Equals Expenditure,” by John Maynard Keynes (to the tune of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”), and “Hark, I Hear a Fallacy,” by Jean-Baptiste Say.

Keynes, the video says, “drove spending straight to the top of the pop charts.” Say, on the other hand, sensibly retorts, “Demand can’t grow the economy. / We produce so we can buy. / Demand’s enabled by supply. / If our goal is more consumption, / First we must increase production.” The commentary of the video praises savings and condemns reckless spending, whether by individuals or the government.

“Miracle on Wall Street” from Crony Chronicles shows a woman and her child voluntarily donating to a charity. Then a businessman with a bell asks the pair, “Donation for my bailout?” The woman replies, “Absolutely not!” The video then points out that the government has “donated” hundreds of billions of our dollars to businesses this year, without our consent. The implicit message is that individuals have a right to decide how to spend their money.

Check them out!

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Related:

• Capitalism and the Moral High Ground
• Video Short Shows Dismal Reality of Life Without Capitalism

Image: Crony Chronicles

Posted in: Taxation