Guess which one of the following thinks that the government should subsidize the diamond industry:
1. A blogger with a dog named Diamond.
2. A rabid Cold War general.
3. A diamond merchant.
[Gary Barnett's] plans for … a 30-story global diamond exchange in the heart of the city’s diamond district … have some there charging that he is undermining their well-being and betraying his roots.A number of the landlords and diamond sellers on West 47th Street, where brokers’ pockets are filled with tissue-wrapped diamonds worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and deals are still sealed with a handshake, have taken to the barricades to stop him.
…
He says that New York needs the kind of government-supported central diamond exchanges that have been built in Shanghai, Tel Aviv and now Dubai.
So we are given two options here: having the government give a free 30-story skyscraper to people who walk around with diamonds in their pockets, or block by force of law the building of a 30-story skyscraper so as to benefit other people who walk around with diamonds in their pockets.
And no one dares to suggest that the government could — just a thought — not do anything either way and simply let the market sort itself out.
Whoever said diamonds were the hardest substance in the world never encountered a central planner’s skull.
POST SCRIPT: For those who don’t understand the title.