Lady Owns the Sun; A Brief Economic Lesson

This is truly an amazing article. In the end we are left with but two choices. Either A.) This lady truly owns the sun, and through taxation and benevolence (like I haven't heard this before) will solve all of the worlds problems or B.) She will get fifteen minutes of fame, nothing will come of it, she does not understand economics.

Although I am not a betting man, I'd wager $100 it's the latter.

The real gem of this article, besides it hilarious absurdity, is the lesson to be learned in economics and how this women demonstrates most peoples profound ignorance in the subject (this may include most econ majors as well :P ).

Near the end of the article, the women says,

Duran, who lives in the town of Salvaterra do Mino, said she now wants to slap a fee on everyone who uses the sun and give half of the proceeds to the Spanish government and 20 percent to the nation's pension fund.

She would dedicate another 10 percent to research, another 10 percent to ending world hunger -- and would keep the remaining 10 percent herself.

"It is time to start doing things the right way, if there is an idea for how to generate income and improve the economy and people's wellbeing, why not do it?" she asked.

And why not? Clearly she has good intentions. However, like many welfare statist policies, that have everyone's best intentions in mind, it is simply wrong on premise.

By slapping a fee on sun usage, she has made everyone in the world poorer, not richer. She depletes the abstract concept of wealth, that money is supposed to represent (damn you fiat), by taxing people on what was free. I was reminded of an allegory by a Frenchmen named Frédéric Bastia, called "The Candlemaker's Petition," a satire on protectionism, but one can easily see how its lessons apply to this real life example.

I highly recommend reading the brief "Candlemaker's Petition"

Hear is the link to the original article.

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