State Sponsored Hyperconsumption of Goods, Services, Info, and Virtue Signals

Oct 19, 2019, 10:55 AM

—“What we like or want may not be good for us.” –Curt Doolittle

Context of the original quote was that we have used a variety of techniques to generate hyper-consumption and especially conspicuous hyper consumption, and even worse, conspicuous hyper consumption of virtue signals. In other words, we may like hyper consumption but that does not mean it is good for us, any more than hyperconsumption of the pleasure response by drugs is, or hyperconsumption of sedation by alcohol, or hyperconsumption of calming by nicotine, or anything else in any similar spectrum.

So, yes, “all things in moderation” for the individual but this isn’t enforceable if the entirety of the political economy is generating hyperconsumption for hyper-taxation, and hyper-redistribution.

The state should not engage in the provision of the incentive to hyperconsume. This only benefits the financial sector. Instead, just redistribute liquidity in response to shock and sags directly to the consumer and cause business to fight over it.