| 1. "provides cheaper supply for a demand" - Nice ;-). I'm not disagreeing with you that if it's free there is no market. But that's an entirely different question from asking whether or not the value of goods and services produced is a net increase or decrease, and this is the relevant question. You're also treading very close to confusing "supply" with "quantity supplied", which is ironic as you simultaneously accuse me of misunderstanding supply and demand: http://econperspectives.blogspot.com/2008/05/supply-vs-quant... 2. Huh? Of course money is a store of value, and it's a medium of exchange. And I'm totally with you on skepticism of the Fed/printing money. All of that is completely tangential to my original argument. Your comments on Spain and China could deserve another ten paragraphs of explanation concerning comparative advantage and the benefits of unilateral free trade. It would not be a worthwhile debate. 3. The size of the market doesn't have anything to do with the economics I'm explaining to you. This is another common fallacy where people confuse magnitudes of the parameters in reasoning with the reasoning itself. We're talking at the margin. 4. Once again, a total evasion of any substance. Not even worth it. 5. Sure. Clearly the there is not a net benefit to that particular company and its employees. And? Does analysis of net economic costs and benefits befall one particular company or the economy as a whole? You haven't thought past stage 1, nor does what you said address my (5) whatsoever. 6. Still no argument here, as you completely evade accounting for all costs and benefits over the costs and benefits which are either 1) very visible to you and everyone else, or 2) extreme for one particular group of (special interest) people. You might enjoy this article: http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basEss1.html "There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen." |