Supply Side Ecology

     One of the many debates that rages in economics and politics is related to the 'supply side' philosophy a government might take in transition from highly taxed low productivity nation to a nation with a more productive economy and lower tax rates. Rather than attempt to model the various complexities of our economy with numbers, functions and formulas of dubious merit and understanding by most people, I offer the perspective that an economy can be modeled by a functioning ecology that is familiar to all of us -- a lawn.

     Assume that success for a lawn is measured not in height of the grass but area plus height (volume) of the grass in the lawn.  Each clump of grass is analogous to a productive opportunistic individual.  Also assume that between mowings, the grass grows an arbitrary 40% in height. The object of mowing the lawn from the point of the government is to fill the grass catcher with enough bags of grass so that it can spread clippings on areas that need a little help to look greener. The economy is a lawn surrounded by bare ground.

     Our current tax rates are like going out and mowing the lawn with the setting at 1/2".  There is hardly any chance for most grasses to get big enough to go to seed and start new grass or to survive and become a healthy drought and disease resistant lawn. Additionally the grass hardly grows fast enough to provide for its own well being. As time passes in subsequent weeks and months, there are fewer clippings to spread around, yet the need for clippings to cover the brown spots keeps expanding.

     The question quickly comes up, what do you do when run out of clippings to spread?

     The simpleton solution is to set the mower to 1/4 inch to get more clippings. However, next pass with the mower, you will find you are short of clippings again and there won't be much grass left to clip.  Pretty soon your whole lawn looks sickly.  This is the equivalent raising taxes and sending the economy into a recession.  As a good liberal gardener, you also make a big deal about the poor bare spots in the lawn. 'How could this happen in a garden so rich!', you scream. You go out sprinkle some grass clippings over the thin spots to green it up. Of course the clippings wilt so next week it needs a new layer of clippings. Spreading clippings on the thin spots will do little to help the individual grass clumps grow, prosper so that they can save for less prosperous times.  If you spreads the clippings on too thick, you may just kill the grass there all together, rendering that spot in the lawn perpetually dependent on clippings to look green.  Politicians have declared these bare spot to be termed "entitlements", gardeners call it thatch.

     What can you do to correct this situation?

     The obvious solution to any decent gardener is to reduce the need for clippings. Keeping the mower at 1/2" doesn't solve anything. Your lawn will not be reaching full potential, and it will not have a tendency to be opportunistic and spread to adjacent areas because few seeds are being formed. Basically, you are cutting the grass too low for a healthy lawn to become established. Your lawn is also prone to damage during drought and when kids play on it...

     Another alternative is to incrementally raise your mower to 2". In the space of a few mowings, you will soon be collecting two (if not three) more bags of grass from the same lawn and the lawn will be spreading like wild fire to adjacent areas as you have allowed more seeds to form and runners to take root.  Those with a different agenda than the lawn's well being will call this 'voodoo', but most anyone who knows better will recognize this as common sense gardening practice. Allowing the grass to shelter itself allows it to be less prone to drought, more resistant to abuse, few if any bare spots will ever appear, etc...

     This last alternative is the equivalent to lowering tax rates (raising the amount each person can keep from their hard earn efforts) and letting the economy (lawn) grow.  This is commonly known as supply side economics (or supply side ecology). It works most every time it has been responsibly tried to invigorate an economy, just as it works for lawns.  Of course, supply side economics will fail to balance a budget, if one chooses to consistently spend more than one takes in (or continually expand the need for clippings as the lawn grows).

     This illustrates two basic ways of adjusting an economy with tax rates.  The only way that short grass can attain any degree of health is through lots and lots of extra care and management. The same is true of an economy that is being strangled by taxes.  It can only look decent with lots and lots of government management. Is this the kind of solution that we want for our future?  Those who think that excessive government management is the answer to our balanced budget problems, try maintaining your own putting greens. You will quickly learn the value of 'supply side ecology' and why putting greens are not found in everybody's yard and hopefully learn why high taxes and big government redistributions schemes won't work.

     Now you know what I think, what do you think

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