The Zimbabwe Factor
Things keep getting worse in Zimbabwe. No matter how much destruction the dictator Robert Mugabe inflicts, he’s ready to inflict ever more.
Now it’s draconian price controls to combat hyperinflation. Of course, it was Mugabe’s administration that caused the hyperinflation by printing lots of worthless paper money.
After the announcement of price controls, some ordinary Zimbabweans were actually ecstatic for a minute, expecting to get a break on the cost of living. Then the cupboards grew bare. Government officials and other members of the elite jumped to the head of the line and scooped up as many goodies as they could as fast as they could. And companies stopped making and selling stuff they could no longer make money on.
Thank goodness this kind of thing can’t happen in America. Right?
Well, we’ve had price controls here, too. The controls haven’t been so sweeping. So the effects haven’t been as severe. But they haven’t been good, either.
Price caps attempting to curb inflation ignore the real cause. They don’t “work” in Zimbabwe, or here, or anywhere else. It has something to do with economic law, supply and demand, all that. So let’s not to go down the Zimbabwe path, imposing either explicit or de facto caps like price-gouging laws. Not on gas. Not on anything else.
In power for 27 years, Mugabe has violently overcome his country’s term limits. Funny how the power-hungry dictator-for-life types always hate term limits, isn’t it?
Or is that just in Zimbabwe?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
