Civil servant is righter than government minister shocker!
Tim Worstall
There’s a row going on about energy price rises, as you know. This blog rather nicely lays out one view. Now, we all know that energy prices are going to rise in the future: the government’s specifically taxing us all to make sure this is true. However, underlying that is another argument: does this mean that the average family will be paying more?
In one corner we’ve the DECC and the various environmentalists. No, the higher prices will encourage people to substitute. They’ll insulate, wear woolly jumpers, use less energy anyway. In the other corner we’ve a political advisor called Ben Moxham who calls this all wet. People won’t in fact change their behaviour all that much and the average energy bill is going to go way up.
It’sd a bit of a pity to get involved in such a lovely catfight really, should just get some popcorn and settle down to watch. However, there’s a reasonable way of calling this argument, by using a little basic economics. (Adam Smith)
