Lying Prices Keep America Hooked on Spending
When politicians hide the cost of government, ‘free college’ and ‘Medicare for all’ sound like bargains.
Steve H. Hanke and Stephen J.K. Walters
Margaret Thatcher famously said the problem with socialism is that you “always run out of other people’s money.” The trouble with resisting socialism is that until the money runs out, free-spending progressive policies are remarkably seductive. Their appeal comes from what economists call lying prices: advertised prices that don’t reflect the full cost of what you’re buying.