An astonishing fact has very recently come to my attention: a COVID test costs $10 at CVS. (That would be for one BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Self Test; sophisticated consumers, a skill set that continuously eludes me, can bulk purchase two such tests for $19.00.)
Fully four years after the first signs of a worldwide pandemic I know the cost of a COVID test. Why did it take that long? Because until now various governmental agencies have been providing these tests for free. While the federal government seems to have let this program expire, Montgomery County’s residents can still get test kits and masks for free at the libraries. As of today, supplies at the libraries are extremely limited, so it looks as if this program is winding down as well. Thankfully the early predictions that COVID will evolve to the severity of a common cold have mostly materialized, so the need for tests is far less pressing. Nevertheless, we have learned an important policy lesson from these free tests.
Facing a property tax bill north of $7,500, I can easily afford paying $10 for a COVID test—even at the beginning of the pandemic. There is no reason why anyone paying over $7,500 (or some arbitrary number) in property tax should ever have been entitled to a free COVID test. What is truly heartless about giving free COVID tests to every resident is that the high-income residents are receiving free kits that quite arguably should have gone to low-income residents. This is what emotionless economists call a “misallocation of resources;” this is why Martin Luther King said socialism is for the rich, individualism is for the poor.
If the county’s distorted allocation of resources stopped at $10 COVID tests, there wouldn’t be a problem. The problem becomes really unpalatable when we look at any other county-supplied product or service at the same price for everyone.
Fares for Ride-On buses
Fares for Metro rides
Street repairs
Fire and rescue
Law enforcement
Parks
Libraries
Community centers
(Interestingly, Montgomery College partially mitigates the problem of “socialism is for the rich” by offering scholarships based on financial need.)
In particular, Council Member Evan Glass aggravated the misallocation of Ride-On resources when in 2019 he sponsored, and passed, legislation giving all children under the age of 18 free rides between the hours of 2:00 and 8:00 PM. Mr. Glass’s reasoning:
Every student should have the opportunity to succeed, regardless of which school they attend or their household wealth.
Mr. Glass perfectly affirms Reverend King’s claim that socialism is for the rich. After all, there is very, very little justification for giving children of families with $10,000 property-tax bills the same discount as those children living in families with $2,800 property-tax bills.
In Part 2 of this series, we’ll explore the mammoth proof that our county’s socialist policies support the rich at the expense of the poor.
