"The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics."
— Thomas Sowell
Because we all need to do our part to help reduce the federal deficit, today I’m presenting a “learning moment” on economics, brought to you by Lady M.
Let’s start with the basics: economics is the study of the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.
Take corn kernels for example. Just sitting around in a feed store they’re not much use to you if you just want a bowl of Frosted Flakes. Someone has to plant, grow, harvest, mill, transport, process, box, deliver and sell the Frosted Flakes. That’s what’s called “value added” and it fuels the economy. OK? “Adding value” requires people to do “ a whole bunch of stuff” which in turn creates jobs.
Lady M, in addition to being a World Class Fashion Icon and Busy Mom™ is also a world class economist. She totally gets “value added” and how it can stimulate the economy. Observe and marvel at Lady M’s economic savvy. You’ll see why Big Guy can’t wait to get her out on the campaign trail:
First we take one cheap dress made by Swedish company S&H (think of it as the Ikea of the clothing world) that retails in the USA for $34.95:
- Hire a stylist to track it down from an infinite number of cheap frocks that might be able to be described as “populist,”
- hire a political consultant to determine it’s favorability with the target market (American women who might be coaxed into voting in the next presidential election), who then
- hires a marketing company to conduct focus groups on the frock’s favorability ratings.
- Hire a couture house to modify the design so it doesn’t completely look like a 20-something’s clubbing dress: make it a tad longer- butt not too long, we don’t want to look matronly! Ad sleeves (as recommended by the political consultant’s focus groups) and expansion joints,
- hire a seamstress to cut and assemble the newly designed dress,
- hire a tailor to custom fit the seamstress’ work.
- Have a Stylist’s assistant source a more First Lady-like designer belt in rich Corinthian leather (also recommended by the focus groups – talk about added value!) and an appropriate pair of shoes in a color that will really “pop” the entire ensemble.
And voilà! We’ve got ourselves a winner.
“Everybody's got to get dressed in the morning and put on something. I hope people find it nice, but it's not something I focus on." (that’s what our little people are for.)
We have taken a simple, cheap $34.95 dress and transformed it into a fashion icon now worth at least $234,000 – and in the process we’ve created or saved at least 150 jobs!
And that, my friends, is how Obamanomics works.
“Adding value” everywhere we can!
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