Multiple Economic Personality Disorders

ISTJ is the acrostic which describes my personality according to an online quiz I took with Cindy over the weekend.




It caused me to ponder the effects of economic personalities as mentioned by Mr. Hazlitt in his fine volume Economics in One Lesson. They are multiple and they create disorder.

The scenarios presented in the various chapters of weekly assigned reading have challenged my critical thinking skills, but have firmly reinforced my capitalistic principles when approaching basic economics. There is a lot of material to cover each week. To read and digest six topics in one week is just about more than I can assimilate and I'm not tending to small children. So, I've narrowed my assignment.

Rent control (chpt 18) is the one I have chosen to focus on in this week’s reading roundup. I gave some thought to the previous chapter, Government Price Fixing, in light of the limiting charges allowed the provider (doctor) in his contract with CMM (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid), but thought the topic might take me into waters too deep at this point.

At any rate, sticking to the premise of the book (analysing the economic fallacies that are so prevalent in our society), Mr. Hazlitt debunks all the arguments in favor of rent controls. Unfortunately, as pointed out earlier in the book, citizens (and legislators) are not always interested in facts.

But the fact is rent controls (subsidies) prevent citizens from economizing (taking up less space-the Mexicans and Guatemalans do this very well in my area, but the housing authority and the health department are trying to prevent it.) Furthermore, controls encourage the wasteful use of space. The policies that dictate the prices for rent are discriminatory and the effects become worse the longer the controls continue. When the legislators realize the deleterious effects of their confused ideas they try to alleviate the pressures by creating new rules or dropping the controls on certain *luxury* facilities.

You may be wondering if these types of rent controls even exist any more, since Mr. Hazlitt’s
examples are focused on post World War II era.


But consider the updated terminology of *affordable housing* and you will find the link to the current system of rent controls, and not just public housing.



In my small town, there are several new apartment type communities, both with gated entries, which are subsidized by Federal and States monies and restricted by special guidelines (building codes and otherwise).

The short answer is that anyone can apply to live in these , but only certain ones qualify for lower rent based on their annual incomes. If anyone has to live below poverty level (whatever that is), let him be poor in the great US of A. Just as Mr Hazlitt predicted on page 135 (of my volume which has a $1.50 price which means it‘s really old), the State must step in and itself build low-rent housing.

Pressure groups which believe that taxpayers owe these subsizies are built up
and promote these matters as rights. Another all but irreversible step is taken
toward the total Welfare State.

The government is driven to controls in ever widening circles, which is something I call the ripple effect and in the end, discourages and limits both employment and production when it fixes prices. Prices at any given moment are not sacrosanct and the whole effort of controlling the economy through regulations does nothing but create needless bureaucrats.


Each one of us has a multiple economic personality (including the needless bureaucrat).

Each one of us is a producer, a consumer, and a taxpayer. Make sure to look at everyday problems (and opportunities) from all of these angles and I believe you will begin to see the unseen: the short AND long-term consequences of market-place controls; the primary AND secondary issues that affect your pocketbooks; as well as the theory AND art of economics.

Make sure your personality is not a disorder.