Rosinante Quixote
It is our government which bears this responsibility, and it is recklessly improper when that government abandons their responsibility for the cheap bow tie and distorted amplifier of the spruiker.
Investment; employment; generation and distribution of income; dividends (which lead to further investment; and so on …) The windows in the homes of economists and politicians get foggy at the very thought of such a cycle of economic prosperity.
And indeed, when such entrepreneurial wet dreams are realised, the benefits are as obvious as the red light special in a two dollar shop. There are spruikers everywhere, armed with cheap bow ties and distorted amplifiers, insisting that passers-by would have to be CRAZY to miss out on such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grab a piece of The Product.
But what’s not so obvious — in fact, often not even hidden in tiny print on the back of the box — are the costs associated with The Product. Because ‘costs’ are not so easy to identify or define. ‘Costs’ depend on how closely you associate with The Product, who you are, where you live (and indeed, how you live), your personal ideology, and your values.
‘Value’ is a key term when assessing ‘cost’, because the true ‘cost’ of a project depends on how greatly we value what we are giving up for The Product.
‘Costs’ therefore, are a Dark And Mysterious Thing, demanding critical examination and careful consideration, and such analysis must include an assessment of ‘values’. Especially when the burden of ‘cost’ is imposed upon the people of a state.
Who determines what we, as a collective, ‘value’ and how much of it we should sacrifice for The Product? Who is responsible for that careful and considered analysis of ‘cost’?
It is our government which bears this responsibility, and it is recklessly improper when that government abandons their responsibility for the cheap bow tie and distorted amplifier of the spruiker.
