The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 332
someone who either has absolutely no idea what he is talking about, or it was
written by someone in the employ of the petroleum oil industry. (Hopefully after
reading my letter you’ll be able to enlighten me as to which you are.)
I did what I normally do after becoming acquainted for the first time with someone or something, and that is that I researched your name. I read that you’re an
esteemed economist, that you served as member of a national monetary authority, and that you are an economics professor. While I would agree that those
credentials might entitle you to comment on how someone else accomplished
a real goal, or to guide students through a curriculum that studies processes, it
is not the credentials that would allow you to understand what the whole biofuel
picture is about.
In my opinion, in order to understand the dynamics of what you attempted to
explain, you would have needed true business experience. Perhaps, somewhere in the darkest recesses of your background you may have tried to sell
lemonade as a child to your neighbors; or perhaps you flipped burgers during
your high school summer vacations and you started to get an understanding of
what business and supply and demand is really about. But if you did, then you
got lost when you entered academia and you became just another zombieeconomist prattling on about chalkboard business formulas and equations that
mean nothing in the real world.
Almost all manufacturers manufacture products that they believe will make
them the most amount of money. This is actually the key to the entire capitalist
system. I shouldn’t have to point this out to you since Cato Institute is supposed
to be a bastion of capitalism and free-market economy. Unfortunately, your article seems to indicate that you don’t understand this principle. Therefore, before you continue reading this letter, you may wish to consult with your others
colleagues and confirm that manufacturers do, indeed, try to manufacture products that will make them the most amount of money. In the meantime, I’ll wait
and look up some baseball scores……
Okay, I found out the latest Yankees score and we should be ready to continue.
Farmers are like manufacturers. The only difference is that they “manufacture”
food items instead of refrigerators or cars or television sets. But, they have the
exact same underlying goal: grow or produce items that will make them the
most amount of money. If a farmer, because of environmental or geographical
reasons can make more money growing apples than potatoes, the farmer
