Jelly Bean Economics

[RV]

I know that it's difficult for some to understand dollars and cents. Maybe it's the dollar signs or maybe it's the zeros that are confusing. Maybe it's that some are mathematically challenged. Whatever it is, I'm going to do my best to eliminate that obstacle and clear it up for those who find it confusing or challenging.

Let's suppose that you had five Jellybeans. FIVE not six, not fifteen and not fifty, FIVE Jellybeans. Now let's also suppose in our hypothetical little world that it cost one Jellybean to eat for the month, two Jellybeans for rent or a mortgage and one more Jellybean for other expenses like utilities, maintenance, insurance and the like. That would mean that you have ONE Jellybean left. One not six, not a hundred and not ten. Now let's suppose that you'd been saving that ONE Jellybean every month to buy a car. Maybe you have twenty Jellybeans saved up. You go to the car lot and the salesman of course tries to show you cars which cost a hundred Jellybeans. You quickly and calmly tell him that you have twenty Jellybeans to spend on a car NOT one hundred!  The dutiful salesman says 'oh but, we have financing which will make your twenty Jellybeans work for the car that cost one hundred Jellybeans'. You look at the hundred Jellybean car and see that it is loaded, nice, powerful and a great status symbol. Instead of not looking at the car which clearly is more than the twenty Jellybeans you have, you look at the more expensive car that is out of your price range.

Clearly you know the rest of the story. Certain people buy the car that is out of their price range, find themselves out of Jellybeans, default on the loan and quickly find out that their credit is ruined. It goes without saying that if the hypothetical buyer would have just stayed within their price range, that all would have been well.

Now let's suppose that a Socialist was 'leading' the country. Rather than tell you to stay within the twenty Jellybean limit, he/she would have taken Jellybeans from someone else, say another person who had eight Jelly beans rather than the five and given some of them to you. The person who originally had eight now has four because two Jellybeans were given to you. Wait, where are the other two Jellybeans you might ask? They were kept by the government for 'administrative costs' to monitor and maintain the system which knew that this other person had eight Jellybeans as opposed to your five. Now you have seven Jellybeans every month and the other person who used to have eight now has four.  This is exactly what Democrats are talking about with their plans of 'redistribution' and 'income equality'.

Apparently, spreading the misery around is supposed to make everyone feel better.