All Costs to be Measured in Terms of Communism

When I was a college student (the first time) I used to drink a lot of beer. (I still do, but I used to too). In that era I got into the habit of making all cost-benefit analyses in terms of beer. The math was made especially easy thanks to Wednesday night being dollar beer night. So for instance if I was interested in a $27 dollar shirt, I would ask myself, "hmmmm, is this shirt really worth 27 beers?"

In hindsight it was a stupid comparison. Beer drinking was ultimately the frivolous activity, and I should have been making the judgment in the other direction. "Are these 27 beers really worth forgoing essentials like clothing and rent?"

I see this image constantly on my facebook feed. (Yes I realize my blog is quickly devolving to me just ranting about shit I see on facebook.)

It fails basic economics. Actually calling it economics is too generous. It fails rudimentary budgeting. And budgeting is just counting. So this meme fails at counting. It totally ignores that the wall will lead to less overall spending, not more. Illegal immigration costs the US  over $100 billion a year. It fails cause and effect, which is the aspect of humanity that separates us from the animals. (Maybe not though; even my cat knows if I catch him on the countertop it will be spray bottle time.) Let's just use similar hypothetical scenarios of this "logic" in action.

• Instead of buying equipment the boss could give us all massive raises.
• Instead of having plumbers fix the cascading water main dad could take us all to the circus.
• Instead of paying for critical infrastructure repairs the governor could give every kid a puppy.

The last example kind of stretches the qualifier of "hypothetical" if you live in California. But you get the point. Instead of doing capital investments or preventive maintenance we could just give shit away!

Just like I used to foolishly measure all my costs in terms of beer consumption, liberals now measure all government costs in terms of welfare spending. Providing homes to people, universal free education, free healthcare. If they achieve their goals then the only leftward step from there is nationalizing the means of production, I'd think. Basically the argument is "why pay for all this other crap that doesn't help my feelings when we could have sweet communism instead?"

Note: don't try making these arguments (or any arguments) to liberals. I mean you can do it if you want, and you can try teaching your dog French too, if that's how you like to spend your free time. I'd just say, "yeah and Obama could have paid for all that 7X with the $150 billion he handed over to Iran." Although to them Trump spending $20 billion on border control when we're swamped with illegal immigration is more wasteful than just handing $150 to a state sponsor of terror. You really can't reason with these people; only ridicule. Please do your part.