Sunday, September 28, 2008

GA Governor Ensures Gas Shortage to Continue

Mark Anderson does a wonderful job explaining how Georgia's moronic anti-gouging regulations - stubbornly enforced by cracker asshole Governor Perdue - are a major cause of the ridiculous 1970's-esque gas shortages that are plaguing Atlanta motorists.

I quite agree. And I know this will be outrageously pretentious, but I called it on this very blog, three years ago:

Sonny Perdue's grandstanding will only harm Georgia consumers in the long run. It's hard to believe that gas retailers are "gouging" consumers when people lose their minds and willingly pay high prices. Caveat emptor and all. Just yesterday at work, several people literally ran out of the building to go fill up their tanks. By falling for rumors about dry pumps and skyrocketing gas prices, people helped to ensure that these dire predictions came true. The smart thing to do was stick with normal fueling habits, maybe conserve a little, and just wait it out.

Personally, I don't understand what's "moral" about punishing voluntary exchange. Ask yourself which is worse: having to pay $4.00+ per gallon for gas, or not being able to buy any at all? This is no false choice: Perdue's punitive measures will reward poor consumption habits and cause shortages in the future. This is political opportunism masquerading as consumer protection. And that's way more immoral to me than so-called gouging. [9/1/05]
That was pretty spot-on, no? Especially since it's painfully clear that Sonny Perdue knows fuck-all about basic economics, and learned NOTHING from the episodes of 2005. If that ruddy-faced goober would just step aside and let the market correct the problem, we might all be able to get gas, instead of jamming Atlanta's busy streets and wasting hours in line.

Next time can we please listen to the economists instead of the politicians? PLEASE?

***UPDATE 9/29/08***
Check out Aaron Bilger's incredibly lucid article about this on LRC today. Well worth a read.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

J,

Glad to see you're posting again, and good call on the gas shortage three years out. Mark Anderson's column provided an interesting perspective -- it blows my mind that a city like Atlanta is suffering these problems. Considering my short commute I feel I've probably been luckier than most, but if I don't get some more gasoline by the end of the week. . . I hate thinking about it. By the way, great passage from Philip Roth. I forgot how good he could be.

J Ballot said...

Wayner!

Thanks for checking in. I lucked into some gas yesterday - only waited about 10-15 minutes and was able to fuel up to 3/4 tank. But I'm already considering ways to conserve. It's so stupid! My commute's not as short as yours but I'm able to ride MARTA most days - but the Philips gig restarts this week, and then what?

I just loved that passage from "American Pastoral." I confess to being a recent convert to Philip Roth but I'm a huge fan now. "The Plot Against America" is next on my list.

Hope all is well. Take care and talk to you soon.

J

Anonymous said...

Cracker Asshole --- classic.