Today's hot topic - Republican economics

Well actually if you read Instapundit the hot topic is actually pornography. We will get to economics in a minute.

I'm reminded of what Oscar Levant said when Johnny Carson asked his opinion of pornography.

Oscar said "It helps".

If archeology can be trusted it appears that pornography has been ruining lives for 7,500 years.

Yet to be determined:

Will outlawing war save more lives than outlawing pornography?

Will outlawing either stop the practice? Or is the pornography progrom just another make work program for police? Who will inevitably be corrupted by having to look at the stuff in the course of arrest and prosecution. Now why you would want to corrupt the police (because we all know pornography corrupts) is beyond me. Perhaps drug prohibition is not doing a good enough job.

Well like all socialist programs prohibitions of widely desired goods are bound to fail. Why? Because prohibition amounts to a price support program. It is amazing to me the number of people who are against socialism who favor prohibitions.

I have a quaint term for it "Republican socialism". Definition: a price support program for socially unacceptable products.

In other words Republicans like to make vice more profitable and put its distribution in the hands of criminals. Strange but true.

It is a strange world we live in.

And that is your economic lesson for today.