Proponents of the socialistic concept of government price control for the seemingly beneficial purposes of creating a more equitable economy will certainly assure you that their intentions are not to inhibit the liberties of any individual, but rather simply to regulate prices for the well-being of all people. This fundamentally flawed line of thinking fails to take into account the fact that these types of government controls are inherently people controls, a more fitting term to describe the concept.

Price control is a term generally used to refer to the government practice of imposing measures such as price ceilings and floors in order to manipulate the economy, seemingly for the benefit of the consumer. As I established in a previous essay, price control is, in fact, not in the best interest of any affected party; by interrupting the flow of the free market, the government creates issues for both the consumer and the producer that would not otherwise have existed. However, even if these principles of socialism were effective in balancing out the economy and creating a more fair environment as they are supposed to, the question therein lies: are these controls actually more so people controls than price controls?

The fundamental flaw that proponents of the myth of controlling only prices and not people fail to recognize is that prices, being merely inanimate things, are not the party affected by such measures; neither are the goods whose prices are controlled, nor the wages governed by minimum wage laws. In all such cases, it is always the people who are actually being controlled; the people buying or producing goods or perhaps the employers and employees subsequently impacted by wage controls. Although the price control term serves as a nice disguise for the true situation at hand, it is actually by nature no more than people control.

In Chapter 58 of Clichés of Socialism, the author refers to a fable in which a scorpion, unable to swim under its own power, attempts to convince a beaver to help him cross a body of water. The beaver hesitates to assist, knowing that the scorpion may well sting him. The scorpion insists, however, that it would most certainly not sting the beaver’s back as they crossed, for this would sabotage himself as well, causing both to drown. To that point, the scorpion successfully convinced the beaver to allow him to ride on his back across the river. No sooner had they taken off than did the scorpion sting the beaver anyway. As the two slowly sink, the beaver, taken aback by the scorpion’s lack of consideration for his own cause, angrily questions the little arachnid, who replies that he couldn’t help it, as stinging is his nature.

The author applied the same principle to price control. It is by nature people control, for prices themselves cannot really be controlled. The truly affected party, the people, are the real victims of government overreach in the economy. It is only proper that this concept should be referred to not as price controls, but more accurately as people controls.🔹