Politicians and Creative Destruction

A congresswoman from Texas doesn't use computerized checkout at the grocery store. She wants to preserve jobs.

Notable & Quotable makes the point about her ignorance and simple creative destruction better than I ever could. Read on:

"In an open letter posted Oct. 16 on the Cafe Hayek blog, economist Donald Boudreaux asks Rep. Barbara Lee (D., Texas) about her statement in a congressional hearing that she's against using computer checkout lanes at supermarkets: "I refuse to do that. I know that's a job or two or three that's gone":

Do you also avoid using computerized ("automatic") elevators, riding only in those few that still use manual elevator operators? Do you steer clear of newer automobiles equipped with technologies that enable them to go for 100,000 miles before needing a tune-up? I'm sure I can find for you, say, a 1972 Chevy Vega that will oblige you to employ countless mechanics.

Do you shun tubeless steel-belted radial tires on your car—you know, the kind that go flat far less often than do old-fashioned tires? No telling how many tire-repairing jobs have been destroyed by modern technology-infused tires.

Do you and your family refuse flu shots in order to increase your chances of requiring the services of nurses and M.D.s—and, if the economy gets lucky and you and yours get seriously ill, also of hospital orderlies and administrators? Someone as aware as you are of the full ramifications of your consumption choices surely takes account of the ill effects that flu shots have on the jobs of health-care providers.

You must, indeed, be distressed as you observe the appalling amount of labor-saving technologies in use throughout our economy. It is, alas, a disturbing trend that has been around for quite some time—since, really, the invention of the spear which destroyed the jobs of some hunters."

So much for at least one politician having a basic understanding of productivity and how our living standards improve when new ways replace the old. Of course, that's market based competition at work, an understanding of which too many of our elected officials are clearly lacking.

That's too bad for us taxpayers.

Thanks. Bob.