anti-capitalist | More Liberty

Higher prices result in more people getting more rooms than if prices were static.

Was the Bethlehem Innkeeper Greedy?

The Grinch Who Stole the First Christmas

By: George Noga – December 4, 2022

This year’s Christmas posting is about the innkeeper in whose manger Jesus was born. Last year (posting dated 12/5/21) was about Ebeneezer Scrooge; in 2020 (12/13/20) it was about Christmas Eve 1941 following Pearl Harbor. In 2019 (12/15/19) we featured America’s greatest Christmas story; in 2018 it was lessons from Christmas shopping (12/16/18). All these are on our website: www.mllg.us and worth a read. Note: The genesis for this post was an article forwarded by a reader, but the words are our own.

The story of the birth of Jesus lies at the heart of Christmas. One prevalent narrative is that Jesus was born in a manger because the innkeeper raised prices due to the surge of visitors for the census. The innkeeper often is portrayed as a greedy, and even evil, capitalist. But was the innkeeper truly greedy? The following is from Luke 2-7.

“Caesar Augustus decreed a census be taken and everyone go to their town

to register. . . So, Joseph and Mary, who was with child, went to Bethlehem.

While there, Mary gave birth in a manger as there was no room at the inn.”

The Grinch Who Stole the First Christmas

The Roman government forced people to travel long distances at their own expense and at great risk to register for the census – for the purpose of taxation. Caesar knew there would be great danger and hardship but was oblivious. Conducting a census, even 2,022 years ago, could have been accomplished with much less human misery.

Why was it necessary to require travel? Why couldn’t people register where they lived? The Romans had a vaunted postal system that could have facilitated the census without hardship. Clearly, this was an egregious abuse of power. The hubris of government was responsible for Jesus being born in a manger instead of in his own home. It is incandescently clear that the grinch who stole the first Christmas was government.

Was the Innkeeper Greedy or Benevolent?

If the innkeeper raised prices due to the surge of travelers registering for the census, would that have been greedy or even evil? This situation is no different than the price of hotel rooms during a hurricane or a big football game. Prices convey valuable economic information. By adjusting prices when demand surges, consumers benefit.

Higher prices incentivize travelers to stay with friends or relatives or to lodge farther away where prices are lower. Some families that otherwise might have taken two rooms may decide to make do with one room. Some people may decide to stay for fewer nights. Higher prices would sharply increase the supply of rooms as many local residents may decide to rent out rooms in their home, or even their entire home.

The price mechanism assures more people will get more rooms than if prices remained static. Scarce hotel (or inn) rooms are allocated in the most economically efficient manner. Those who value rooms the most get them. Far from being evil, higher prices enable the market to allocate scarce resources to the benefit of all consumers.

###################################

The narrative of a greedy innkeeper is frequently the topic of Christmas sermons and school plays. It is economic ignorance and anti-capitalist drivel. The grinch who stole the first Christmas was government – and nothing has changed in 2,022 years.

BEST WISHES TO ALL OUR READERS FOR A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND FOR A NEW YEAR WITH MORE LIBERTY AND LESS GOVERNMENT!

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us

Instead of a diploma, graduates should receive an apology and a tuition refund.

MLLG College Commencement Address

By: George Noga – June 11, 2017

Graduates: upon your graduation today from this elite college, you will receive congratulations and a diploma. Instead, you should demand an apology from the college along with a refund of most of your tuition. You have been swindled, deceived, bilked, scammed, hoodwinked and defrauded in almost every way imaginable.

During your seven years here, you never were taught by a professor; most of your graduate-student instructors sat in the same class last semester that they now teach. Most of you graduated with honors; making them meaningless and reminiscent of Lake Wobegon where everyone is above average. Many of your degrees are useless; some even are harmful. If your degree is in any hyphenated subject or in one that ends in studies, consider it worthless; the same applies to degrees in Zombies in Popular Media and Queer Musicology. Most of you didn’t need a college degree in the first place.

No instructor or guest speaker has ever challenged you with ideas contrary to progressive shibboleths. You have experienced diversity in every conceivable way except the one that matters, i.e. diversity of thought. You have been indoctrinated in pro-government, anti-capitalist, anti-business and politically correct orthodoxy. You have been propagandized and terrorized about the environment and climate change.

You have been coddled by trigger warnings, safe rooms and even the avoidance of microaggressions. You have been cloistered in a cocoon of enforced conformity. Males have had their constitutional rights stripped away and live on the razor’s edge, one ersatz accusation away from perdition. There is not now and never was a campus rape crisis; the real world has no speech codes; and all America is a free speech zone.

Your college has a humongous endowment and doesn’t even need to charge tuition. Nevertheless, it has colluded with government, and against you and your parents, to raise the cost of tuition. Government decided everyone needed a college degree, so they lowered standards causing a student glut and a bubble in higher education.

Government then made student loans easily available and your college raised its tuition to capture the subsidies. Tuition has risen 400% faster than inflation. Middle income taxpayers, who foot the bills, are subsidizing your elite education and are the ones you stiff when you inevitably default on your loans. You show your ingratitude by flagrantly flaunting your disrespect of their values, religion and patriotism.

You are victims of intergenerational theft and inherit $600,000 as your share of future unfunded government liabilities. You also inherit a dysfunctional world with multiple existential threats and an imminent debt crisis, all due to following the discredited progressive dogma you were taught at this college. You are a lost generation and will be truly lucky if your life is better than your parents’.

Following this ceremony, go straight to the nearest unemployment office, as this elite college did not equip you to add value to the economy. Those of you finding a job will soon learn that it is not about you – it is all about the customer. Your second stop should be at a law firm to sue this college for fraud and a tuition refund. Finally, you must begin to unlearn all the crapola you were taught at this college.

If you feel entitled to a break following graduation, spend some time in Venezuela or Cuba to experience some real socialistic comradeship – but remember to bring your own food, medicine and toilet paper. Use your time (while standing in lines) in these workers’ paradises to decide if you are a frail, delicate, fragile snowflake who must be sheltered in a safe room with a teddy bear or someone ready to face the real world.

Finally, as alums, you will be solicited by this college for donations to add to its already obscenely large endowment. Instead, send them a copy of your student loan repayment schedule and once again demand a refund of your tuition payments.

Next up is a special MLLG posting on June 14th – Flag Day