Economic Planning’s Trashy Results

A recent article on a garbage crisis in Naples Italy confirms what I’ve always believed—such trash crises all have roots in government planning. Nations around the world plan for waste disposal the way Soviets used to plan economies, and the results are equally disappointing.

In Naples Italy, government planners failed to ensure the supply of solid waste disposal sites would meet demand, and as a result, trash has been piling up in the city streets since December 20! When have you ever heard of such a catastrophe in a truly free market for a good or service? How often has your supermarket completely run out of food to sell because someone in the marketplace miscalculated supply and demand?

Markets may have their own glitches—which are followed by automatic corrections from time to time. But when governments decide to provide “security” by taking over a market, crises occur all too often and corrections come slowly.