Strange Bedfellows
by Jeffrey Miron on March 27th, 2010
2 Comments
REDWAY, Calif. (AP) – The smell of pot hung heavy in the air as men with dreadlocks and gray beards contemplated a nightmarish possibility in this legendary region of outlaw marijuana growers: legal weed.
If California legalizes marijuana, they say, it will drive down the price of their crop and damage not just their livelihoods but the entire economy along the state’s rugged northern coast.
So, if legalizing marijuana is bad for the economy, then prohibiting a good that is currently legal should be good for the economy. And to get the biggest bang for the buck, we should prohibit something that everybody wants.
I guess that means we should outlaw food.
Categories: My Blog
Mike Huben
Why am I not surprised that your first sentence is a blatant logical fallacy?
Jack
This is a nice example for basic economic concepts such as consumer surplus and producer surplus. Assuming price indeed drops (reasonable), consumer surplus increases while the change in producer surplus is unsigned. The claim that it is bad for the economy doesn’t seem to hold up.