Economics of Santa's Workshop

Artigo de Michael Levin na Free Market (Mises Institute)

Santa's realm can function only as an island of autocracy in an ocean of market freedom, which is why the whole world could not run like what we imagine to be the worker's paradise of Toyland. If Toyland ever attempted to provide everything for everyone and, thanks to IMF subsidies, succeeded in becoming the world's only producer, it would bring about global poverty and misery. That's because when firms get so big as to abolish internal markets for their capital goods, they lose the ability to calculate efficiently. Inefficiency invites competition.

Compare the dubious economic merits of Toyland with the competitive marketplace, in which firms pay workers, purchase raw material, hawk their wares, charge prices, and calculate profits and losses, all in an effort to give the consuming public what it wants. Instead of venerating Santa's socialist utopia, let's raise our wassail mugs to the capitalist economy that provides for us, not only at Christmas, but all year 'round.