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[music playing]

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-Sorry to have kept you waiting,
it’s just that my…

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I’m afraid my walk has
become rather sillier lately.

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It's taking me longer
to get to where I'm going.

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[laughing]

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'MINISTRY OF SILLY WALKS'
Monty Python's Flying Circus 1970

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I wish someone would pay me

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to spend more of
my time silly walking.

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This would add greatly to my
happiness and possibly yours too.

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At least I think it would.

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But I haven’t figured out a way
to get paid for silly walking,

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unless I could get
a government grant.

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-I have a silly walk, and I’d like
to obtain a government grant

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to help me develop it.

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-I see. May I see your silly walk?

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-Yes, certainly. Yes.

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-If there were government
subsidies for silly walks,

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if they gave me money to develop
new walks for example,

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or promise to buy a certain
number of the walks I created,

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there would be more silly
walks than there are now.

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Isn’t that a great idea?

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-It’s not particularly silly is it?

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-Well, with government backing
I could make it very silly.

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-You probably think
it’s not a great idea

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because silly walks are,
well, they’re silly.

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But even if you agreed with me
that silly walks benefit society,

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there would be good reason
to oppose subsidies for them.

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If people aren’t willing to pay me

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to develop silly walks
with their own money,

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it says people don’t value them
as much as other things I could do.

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I could flip hamburgers, walk dogs,

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sell used cars, or teach economics -

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things people would
pay for voluntarily.

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We’ll get more silly
walks with subsidies,

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but they’ll be worth less to people
than they cost to produce.

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That means the subsidies
would waste resources.

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But what about other,
more serious subsidies?

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-National defense,
social security, health,

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housing, education, silly walks.

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[laughing]

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-What about subsidizes for food?

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You might have seen
a bumper sticker that says:

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'No farms, no food',
or something like that.

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Some people have argued that

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food subsidies are necessary
to ensure food security.

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Without subsidies they say,
we won’t have enough food.

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But subsidizing food production

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is a lot like
subsidizing silly walks.

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Yes, we’ll get more food, but
the subsidies will waste resources.

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It will be food that costs more
to produce than it’s worth.