Price Controls

Crowds cheer when Barack Obama declares dramatically that he is going to "bring down the cost of health care," as if price controls were some bright new idea.

There were price controls back in Roman times - and in ancient Babylon before that.

Price controls have had the same bad effects for literally thousands of years. But now they are suddenly the latest "new" formula for salvation.

— Thomas Sowell; Dismantling America

Price controls create lower prices for open and legal transactions— but also black markets where the prices are higher than they were before, because the risks of punishment for illegal activity has to be compensated. Price controls also lead to shortages and quality deterioration.

But politicians who take credit for lower prices blame all these bad consequences on others. Diocletian did this in the days of the Roman Empire, leaders of the French Revolution did this when their price controls on food led to hungry and angry people, and American politicians denounced the oil companies when price controls on gasoline led to long lines at filling stations in the 1970s. It is the same story, whatever the country, the times or the product or service.

— Thomas Sowell; Dismantling America