I just wish this was true in every other endeavor.
It's not even totally true in science, unfortunately. Take global warming "science" for example. I'm still waiting for there to be "standards of observation, experiment, peer review, and independent verification" involved there.
I never understood why the Apple family did not just raise the price of their cider. There was obviously a shortage, and the cider was in such high demand that the entire population of Ponyville camped in line for the whole night before cider season commenced just to ensure their transaction. Due to the finite income of each pony and the law of diminishing marginal returns, raising the price of cider would have prevented ponies like the master troll Pinkie Pie from purchasing so many mugs of cider while also not losing too many customers, thus allowing for a more equitable distribution of cider as well as extra profits with which the Apple family would invest in more capital so as to more efficiently produce more cider in the future, thus increasing supply in the long term, satisfying more ponies and preparing for any future competitors that may enter the market, such as the Flim-Flam brothers. Since Applejack's friends were so willing to help Applejack in the competition so as to not lose her property, then surely there would have been ponies who would be willing to be paid a wage to assist In cider production, which would have increased employment, increase output, lower production costs, raise revenues for investment in capital, and increasing supply, thus eliminating the cider shortage via capitalism. Considering that the price of cider was two bits a mug, and that the cider shortage was a chronic dillema in the Ponyvillian economy, I doubt that Applejack has ever thought of applying such basic microeconomic principles while managing her firm, which is surprising considering that she was the pony that solicited her enterprise in the Grand Galloping Gala for the sake of profits, without taking the action that would have maximized profits both in the short run and the long run during the episode of cider season. Her enterprise would have been great, but she squanered her financial potential for years because economics is not included in Cherilees curriculum.
Both Applejack and the Flim-Flam brothers were fools for not analyzing the marginal costs and benefits of gambling the entirety of their enterprises on a single competition, especially if the risks and costs made such a transaction a net loss for their firms. They were all fools, and yet Applejack has the audacity to write to Princess Celestia that she learned absolutely nothing from this crisis in which she and her family would have lost all of their property to a competing firm because pride clouded her economic analysis.
Economic analysis of ponies, anyone? Perfect example of thinking into it far too much, I think.
Frédéric Bastiat wrote:And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works.
Count Axel Oxenstierna wrote:Dost thou not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?
Melonpool
