Kurt Vonnegut breathes no longer, but will long be with us
I just heard on the news about the death of Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut was a great writer, sure, but why mention him on a blog about economics?
Vonnegut often saw the absurdity of certain things that we as humans have attempted to do. One of his great works was a very short story entitled “Harrison Bergeron,†which you can read here. In it those who have worked for equality have won. The only problem is, the equality they fought for is equality of results. Everyone is made equal by bringing all those who excel down to the lowest common denominator, not just mediocrity but to the very bottom. People who are attractive are forced to wear masks. People who are bright have little buzzers going off in their ears every so many seconds to break their train of thought. Dancers who are gifted are weighted down. The result is less than mediocrity in everything. In this world, it is not a Sanjaya who would entertain us, but rather a William Hung. Well you get the idea. Try to make everyone equal, the only way to do it is make everyone equally bad off.
MC