| Yesterday began as a cold rainy Friday for me | | | | product. Though it presently takes the same |
| when I got out of bed hungering for, of all | | | | amount of ingredients, as it did 49 years |
| things, a Hershey bar. It must have been the | | | | ago, to make the same Hershey bar, the candy |
| sudden intense craving for that yummy | | | | is considered to be worth 1500 percent more |
| chocolate taste that caused me to get quickly | | | | now than then. Is this because the price of |
| dressed, grab my wallet, and, with an | | | | sugar, chocolate, and the other ingredients |
| umbrella, walk the oft-beaten one block route | | | | in the bar have substantially increased? No. |
| to the neighborhood convenience store. There | | | | The price of the ingredients haven't gone up |
| I found the traditional black and white | | | | that much, not 1500 percent. Candy makers |
| packaged candy displayed prominently among | | | | can currently buy their ingredients wholesale |
| its many rivals crying out, "buy me, buy me." | | | | and not pay but 10 percent more than they |
| So I grabbed one and rushed hungrily to the | | | | paid in 1960. The overall cost of producing |
| checkout counter to discover that the small | | | | the candy hasn't gone up more than 25 |
| bit of chocolate for which I, as a child, | | | | percent.In relation to the pencil, you can |
| paid 5 cents was now 79 cents. But as I was | | | | clearly see that the content and basic |
| suddenly exasperated by the retail price of | | | | quality of the Ticonderoga Number 2 is the |
| the item, I found myself pulling out a dollar | | | | same as it was in 1960. The cost of |
| bill, handing it to the cashier, and getting | | | | producing it might have possibly increased 5 |
| back my 21 cents in change. As I walked out | | | | percent or less. But the popularity of the |
| of the store tearing the paper off the | | | | pencil has not increased as much in 49 years |
| chocolate bar, it dawned on me that even if | | | | as has the Hershey bar. The candy maker |
| the candy had been a dollar, I probably would | | | | knows that people enjoy eating candy more |
| have still bought it.But isn't that the way | | | | than using a pencil. That is why countless |
| the free market works to regulate our lives | | | | millions of dollars are spent by candy |
| according to the arbitrary values set by | | | | companies each year to advertise their |
| private industry? Perhaps the current 4.9 | | | | quickly consumable products. They know that |
| percent unemployment rate in America may be | | | | the American public will pay 79 cents for a |
| defined and understood better by taking a | | | | Hershey bar even if it is really only worth |
| snapshot of the rise and fall of arbitrary | | | | perhaps less than 20 cents. Yet, while |
| values, or the prices set on the things the | | | | everyone can't eat candy because of health |
| American people hold dear. As far as the | | | | concerns, the whole American population uses |
| Hershey bar is concerned, approximately 6,000 | | | | pencils. However, I can't remember the last |
| employees currently labor year-round in | | | | billboard I saw advertising pencils, though |
| Hershey, Pennsylvania to produce the same | | | | you can probably find at least one in every |
| type of candy that was made nearly 80 years | | | | American home, school, and office. |
| ago by Milton S. Hershey. Supposedly, the | | | | |
| quality and quantity of the original Hershey | | | | What does this have to do with the current |
| chocolate bar has not changed over the years, | | | | unemployment crisis? Well, American |
| but the price sure has.When I was a young | | | | capitalists are driven by the profit motive |
| boy, I regularly collected soda-pop bottles | | | | to produce and deliver their products. This |
| from alongside the county roads in East | | | | is the amount of money they get for a product |
| Texas. People then would ordinarily buy Dr. | | | | after the cost of producing it is subtracted. |
| Peppers and Cokes in the ten ounce glass | | | | The high point of American capitalism is |
| bottles, drink them while driving, and throw | | | | finding the maximum cost for which a product |
| them from their cars into the high uncut | | | | can be offered which will be accepted readily |
| grass. This was to my benefit, because in an | | | | by the consumer. In the same way the cost of |
| hour's time I could find ten or more of those | | | | something can be artificially raised in order |
| bottles and sell them back to grocery stores | | | | to increase profits, the number of employees |
| for their deposits, then 10 cents per bottle. | | | | it takes to produce the product can be |
| With my pockets bulging with dimes and | | | | arbitrarily decreased for the same reason. |
| quarters at the end of a summer day, I would | | | | For instance, the high rate of unemployment |
| pay a visit to the candy case of my local | | | | during the Great Depression occurred even |
| store. With the dollar or more I had made | | | | though the production of essential products |
| from the bottles, I would go away from the | | | | throughout the nation continued. The stores |
| store with ten or more Hershey, Butterfinger, | | | | continued to sell these products even though |
| or Mars bars in a paper bag. That's when | | | | there wasn't as much international trade. |
| candy bars were 5-10 cents each during the | | | | The wealthy people in the country, the ones |
| 1950s and 60s. At the current selling price | | | | with money to spend, continued to live their |
| of 79 cents, a Hershey bar, with the same | | | | lavish lifestyles. A certain percentage of |
| size and content of the bar produced in 1955, | | | | the workforce was retained in order to secure |
| has increased 1500 percent in value. Does | | | | this level of production. Had the production |
| this surprise you, or are you willing to | | | | levels been arbitrarily increased by the |
| casually say, "what's the difference? | | | | corporate CEOs at that time, unemployment |
| Everything goes up in price and I'd buy it if | | | | would have been substantially |
| it were a dollar."The poignant question | | | | reduced.Presently, government employment is |
| festering in the back of everyone's mind, | | | | increasing way above the private sector. |
| whether they want to admit it or not, is, | | | | What this means is that the executive |
| "did the price really have to go up if the | | | | branches of the federal, state, and local |
| quantity and quality of the product are the | | | | governments are using tax money to pay an |
| same as they were in 1955?" The answer is | | | | expanding number of salaries. While tax |
| one that almost all hard-nosed capitalists | | | | revenues are not earned, but collected from |
| would rather not care to expound upon. Most | | | | taxpayers, the private sector is essentially |
| would have it remain in obscurity, blowing in | | | | paying for the continued proliferation of |
| Bob Dillon's wind. Nevertheless, the free | | | | government. At the same time, the private |
| market remains a strange rapacious beast that | | | | sector is downsizing its workforce in order |
| continually seeks its own existence, | | | | to increase its profits. This doesn't make |
| according to its widely varying appetite, | | | | sense if the cost of the increased government |
| without regard to who and what it consumes | | | | infrastructure is the same or more than the |
| along the way. You might wonder if I copied | | | | cost of increased corporate production. What |
| the foregoing description of free market | | | | I'm saying is that the private sector, the |
| capitalism from some old book of socialist | | | | corporate capitalists, can successfully |
| aphorisms. No, it's an original that I | | | | manipulate the level of unemployment in the |
| thoroughly contemplated before enlisting it | | | | country the same way it can arbitrarily |
| in this essay. It's predicated upon an | | | | increase the price of a popular product 1500 |
| essential principle of human nature, greed. | | | | percent. They do this knowing that the |
| For instance, a grizzly bear will, by | | | | American public will still buy the product at |
| instinct, kill and eat lesser creatures only | | | | the exorbitant price, and will look forward |
| to survive and feed its young. A human | | | | to doing so. And when they announce that |
| being, on the other hand, will prey on its | | | | 36,000 or more employees have to be laid-off |
| own kind by premeditation and design in order | | | | to sustain a particular level of production, |
| to have more than it needs to adequately | | | | the unemployed worker will docilely accept |
| exist. In fact, the human being is the only | | | | his fate and the state of affairs as |
| specie that will kill its own kind, as well | | | | inevitable. This amounts to the unfortunate |
| as other species, in order to live more | | | | conditioning of the American public through |
| comfortably. The desperate burglar who ends | | | | the media.Is democratic socialism a better |
| up killing in order to steal money or | | | | way to secure a quality of life for the |
| valuables is a street variety of this | | | | average American worker? I look at Canada, |
| creature. The corporate Wall Street type of | | | | Britain, Australia, and New Zealand and |
| this animal is an elusive sort that will prey | | | | wonder whether vast corporate profits are |
| on its victims from high in the suites, | | | | more important than the government providing |
| always pretending that what it is doing is | | | | health care and the basics of life to a |
| best for them and the economy. All the | | | | deserving population. These nations may not |
| while, the intended victims of this corporate | | | | have the GNP of the United States or the vast |
| predator scurry about in their middle-class | | | | military-industrial complex that spends the |
| and lower-middle-class existences doing | | | | highest percentage of the federal budget to |
| exactly what they have been conditioned to | | | | sustain a war machine, but they provide a |
| do. | | | | quality of life for their citizens. In the |
| | | | long run, the preeminence of a nation-state |
| After I had feverishly downed the purchased | | | | is not determined by its international |
| Hershey bar, savoring its 79 cents of | | | | status, but, rather, by its ability to |
| delight, I sat at my desk holding a Number 2 | | | | provide for its own. Perhaps it's time to |
| Dixon Ticonderoga Pencil. I had sharpened it | | | | place as much a public value on healthcare |
| in order to do some math calculations. All | | | | and employment as on the almighty Hershey |
| at once I thought of something rather | | | | bar. Perhaps if we raised the value of an |
| profound. Though I had paid 3 cents in 1960 | | | | end to costly healthcare 1500 percent, the |
| for a pencil of that quality, the same type | | | | mandate of our Constitution to promote the |
| of pencil, just a week before, had cost me | | | | general welfare would be quickly realized. |
| only 4 cents. There was something very | | | | At the same time, maybe the price of the |
| revealing in that comparison that seemed to | | | | Hershey bar would come down. I would hope |
| jump out at me. Why had the candy bar | | | | so.Norton R. Nowlin holds M.A. and B.A. |
| increased 1500 percent in 49 years while the | | | | degrees from the University of Texas at Tyler |
| pencil had increased only 1.3 percent? The | | | | in addition to one year of law school at |
| pervasive principle of free market economics | | | | Thomas Jefferson School of Law, in San Diego, |
| that is at work here is the essence of public | | | | California, and 70 semester hours of |
| demand and how much the capitalist can | | | | inter-disciplinary post-graduate credit in |
| greedily derive from the popularity of the | | | | history, sociology, ecnomics, and law. Mr. |