If You Can’t Compete, Why Not Shackle Your Competitors?

Ahh, the left… When life deals you lemons, you advocate a Federal Lemon Rationing Board:

Personally, I would love a legal cap on the number of words a blogger is allowed to produce per day. I’m privileged to have a job that I really enjoy. But at the same time, I would prefer to write somewhat less—this pace is stressful and doesn’t leave me as much time to pursue other projects and interests. But though I would prefer to write somewhat less, I have a stronger second-order preference to produce a blog that’s competitive with other major offerings on the internet. And over the years competition between bloggers has led to escalating word-counts. The resulting situation isn’t terrible, there are lots of people you should cry for before you get to me, but basically we bloggers are engaged in a red queen’s race where we all need to keep trying harder and harder just to maintain our positions. A cap would be helpful.

I’m sure, I’m sure, that this was nothing more than a flippant aside from Yglesias. But it belies a certain technocratic believe in central planning rather than freedom, and simply cannot go without comment. A word cap? A word cap?! Are you f’ing serious? There — that is all.

Hat Tip: Kevin Drum