To the editor: Jonah Goldberg’s column on Vice President Kamala Harris’ proposal on price gouging should be read in classes everywhere as the perfect example of using statistics to lie about the effect of government actions on inflation.
First, his choice of “heavily regulated” industries is bizarre. Particularly odd is the claim that cars have become “more affordable” because they are a “less regulated” commodity. To the contrary, numerous rules for everything from seat belts to fuel consumption have been implemented since 1968.
He blames high housing costs on regulation, but zoning and building codes have existed for a great many decades. Those regulations did not stop the housing market from crashing during the 2008 financial crisis, which was brought on by greed in the private sector.
Furthermore, comparing “national healthcare expenditures” in 1970, before many of the current treatments for diseases even existed and the population was much younger, is simply disingenuous.
If statistics are to be the basis of Goldberg’s column, perhaps he can explain why corporate CEOs on average make hundreds of times what their typical workers receive today, versus less than 30 times the typical salary in 1970.
Stephanie Scher, Pasadena
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To the editor: There are, I believe, two conflicting desires on the part of the public when it comes to funding anything by the government.
First, everyone wants the funding to be the minimum necessary to do the job. The second and far more emotionally charged is that not a single penny of government money should be allowed to be stolen or mismanaged in any way.
This second desire leads to administrative overkill, where every time someone finds a new way to bilk the system or some hapless bureaucrat makes a mistake, many more rules are put into place to ensure that it won’t happen again.
It would be wonderful if we could come up with results-based laws that allow streamlining of all the government inefficiencies, but until then I would remind Goldberg and others that government was designed to be inefficient in this country, the whole point of separation of powers.
Michael Lampel, Granada Hills
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To the editor: Goldberg’s column is an accurate discussion of the theoretical and practical problems with governmental price controls. And it completely misses the mark.
Harris’ claims are founded on evidence of excessive, non-competitive concentration ratios in the grocery business that have been identified by the National Grocers Assn., the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Whether deeper research shows this to be accurate remains to be seen, but the economic principle underlying her campaign rhetoric is sound. Identifying it demonstrates her public prosecutor’s perspective and experience.
Thomas Mone, Los Angeles
