Spoken Mises

Contemplating the grotesque potential side effects of bioethanol subsidies in the world's most developed economies is almost unbearable. While everyone is affected by higher food prices, for some people, the more costly food puts their very subsistence into question. No doubt, the politicians who came up with the idea of subsidizing the diversion of grain to the production of bioethanol did not intend to starve the world's poorest people; but the fact that the consequences were unintended does not absolve them of responsibility.

(Original Text)

Starving the World's Poorest (1.19 MB)