Dune continues to contribute to the national conversation. (part of a longer article)

[Mark Kohut]

The politics of abundance
<https://email.mg1.substack.com/c/eJwlkl2TmyAUhn9NvKsDiEouuOhukq3tapo2zSS5cRCIslFwBNfRX1-yGb5m3nMOL3MeOHOyNsNMe2Nd8NhKN_eSajnZVjonh2C0ciiVoCjCfqRpIChIEU-rQNnyNkjZMdXSoB-rVnHmlNGPbBivIYmDhjIGCOYySaKYkCqJ0htIcBwJQgROoeRPUzYKJTWX1Oh2LnumRNDSxrnerqLvK7Tzc5qm0LZmqsygdB1y03mx94tVoxbMF3-znA1cuXkV7Zy5S72KNnL-CTk6zWfU3rMPM-fLYSk2eVTMk-Jv60Xs1v31NUu8NhVLPRfL1mZd2wiv5cfLUhzzeb-pca4mxc7F4u9Q_MdJvR-3cH_c4uJvZjNdwIvKkky_fPLo4Hh3ai7Rn75CWN0OYZIoK1L2WR1_bS7_xG_L4avZv087cd6yzzO5Jpc3XdYv8JoHiiKAIAQohQAADEMUEhAnAMtUSMB4ld5CkvQfVR2LFQZdDUM7VtYxfn90JBhox4Z7eDfN6Hy8frD5Cng8pT-7Ufv-lFKzqpWCumGUgXvC_-JY1lLLwX8KUTJHoYcWIUIIigl-gvJocQRS4h8YeGdhfJX2ps41cprrVlrF7H_IS8np>Scarcity
itself is bad, not just distributional problems

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Matthew Yglesias
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Oct 27
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I’ve got “Dune” on the brain after watching the movie three times, but I
don’t really have a lot of Slow Boring takes on it.

The book, however, differs from the film in spending quite a bit of time
dwelling on the political economy of Arrakis. Part of this is that water is
not only extremely scarce (as illustrated in the film) but also a
privatized commodity, with water dealers holding wealth and power. For the
bulk of the population, the price of water is *the* fundamental economic
preoccupation — and one thing it illustrates is how inherently regressive
any type of important scarcity is:

“There were water riots when it was learned how many people the Duke was
adding to the population,” she said. “They stopped only when the people
learned we were installing new windtraps and condensers to take care of the
load.”

“There is only so much water to support human life here,” he said. “The
people know if more come to drink a limited amount of water, the price goes
up and the very poor die. But the Duke has solved this. It doesn’t follow
that the riots mean permanent hostility toward him.”

This is presented as common sense, but note that in crucial respects, the
Duke’s solution — install new infrastructure that makes water less scarce —
is at odds with a lot of current practice.

Steven Teles, Samuel Hammond, and Daniel Takash published a paper recently
called “Cost Disease Socialism”
<https://email.mg1.substack.com/c/eJwlUUGO5CAMfE1zIwKSNMyBw172G5ED7sTTBCIgG2VfP2RaWCC5ylSp7KDikvJl91Qqu6-pXjvaiGcJWCtmdhTME3mr-qEdrZm3QiunZ0ZlemXEDShYth9zIAeVUrzZcvySZmSrHcH4L2f6wcjZgfNu1PNzVka-XkorlB9RODxhdGhTDNe0A3kW7FrrXh79n4f62-o8zy5SeUO8ibFZ61JeGuDaB9xTQSjIS3IEgcrG13TycsyFPP2nuPCbVvi5UkCesdRMrt79cux7uLjP9A8Lhw0bAIW_qDgInLYZAjTBJsTIKqGkFEpLIcQgO9UZMT7FgNqjADfrV2ee-_e8jP4xiG2R3e2ggnt3Lm0s2w3yu3un9agNX-7kfoEW3tTe7YhUrwkjzAG9rflAVj-r-U15WjBibivzE1Qrn_3YK2OMGs3wibEFP_RCm2aQNWWf2lRsorWueF5LwEJQfgC6t63_>
 noting the tendency of progressives to see affordability problems in
dysfunctional markets and respond with the idea that we need to subsidize
them. If conditions are perfect, then pure subsidy can address scarcity.
Perhaps if Duke Leto created a program of refundable tax credits for water
purchases, the increased water demand would induce the water merchants to
invest in additional windtraps and condensers in order to meet it. But
generally speaking, scarcity is driven by dysfunction or problem. In the
case of Arrakis, we can probably tell a story where the corrupt and evil
Harkonnens have allowed anti-competitive behavior among the water merchants
that restricts supply.