>
> In a message dated 1/18/02 4:00:18 AM Pacific Standard Time,
> justin schwartz writes:
>
> << As for lines, it's not a big problem. We don't face
> chronic shortages. >>
>
> A little bit of a detour from the main point, but at the
> hospital where I
> work I've noticed that we regularly get notices that there is
> a shortage of
> certain drugs (some of the steroid drugs & antibiotics), and
> that we should
> substitute drug X for the short ones. It's not a BIG
> problem, because there
> are substitutes, but it surprises me. I asked the pharmacist
> why, & she
> didn't know. It appears to me, though I don't know for sure,
> that it was the
> cheaper generics that were usually on the shortage notices...
Yes, thank you for pointing this out. I don't think it is far afield.
We do have mysterious shortages from time to time. I remember gas shortages in the early 70s. I remember long lines of cars waiting to get gas. We had to install locks on our gas tanks to thwart siphoning.
Just the other day, electricity was in short supply in California. I remember massive failure in the New York blackout. Where I live Texas Utilities is like the senile old man who can't keep his pecker up. I still can't get DSL or cable internet connections. Why isn't broadband available? There is a demand for it, so why isn't it there in our superior system?
Less seriously, in my day-to-day purchases, items will be inexplicably unobtainable for varying lengths of time.
Justin, I agree with you in not wanting to belabor this point, but to blame shortages and shoddy goods on central planning, is IMHO, not adequate, since we suffer the same defects though no doubt much less so. IMHO, central planning is too easy an answer. I'm sure it comes in for blame, but let's not overlook other causes too.
I will read Hayek as soon as I finish Popper's Open Society.
-- John K. Taber