In the latest leftoid failure to understand basic economic principles like supply and demand, Berlin Greens demand consumer price caps on ice cream

Also open thread.

Marianne Burkert-Eulitz, Green member of the Berlin House of Representatives, fierce crusader for cheaper ice cream.

A great part of leftist populism rests upon the childish delusion that the state, by issuing simple orders, can actually make things meaningfully cheaper (rather than more or less scarce), and that things are only expensive because we lack laws to stop evil capitalists from price-gouging the poor.

The federal Green party devoted part of their congress last November to demanding lower Döner kebab prices, and now some in their Berlin chapter have decided that ice cream too should be cheaper.

From BILD:

Summer in the capital, temperatures are rising – and with them ice cream pricers. A scoop now often costs more than €1.50, and in some Berlin parlours it can be as high as €2.90, with more for sprinkles. In large cities like Munich and Hamburg, prices up to €4 are no longer uncommon. The national average price per scoop is €1.81.

For many Berlin families on a tight budget, that’s too much …

Berlin Green Party members Benedikt Lux, Tuba Bozkurt, and Marianne Burkert-Eulitz want to change that.

Their proposal: A scoop of ice cream for children and young people from poorer families should cost only 50 cents – at least one flavour per store.

In a letter to the German Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA), they call for an ice cream price cap. “We would be happy to discuss this with you in more detail in the near future and advise whether this is a viable proposal to make the summer even more enjoyable for everyone in our beautiful city,” their letter … states.

They want the price cap to be voluntary. The politicians hope that small, owner-operated ice cream parlours will also get on board – in their own interest. They say that cheaper offerings, after all, could increase demand.

The relentless and highly concentrated stupidity of our rulers is a very great weight to bear. Every day they devise some fantastic new and heretofore inconceivable retardation.

1) The idea that actual literal fucking shop owners, who sell their wares every day on the street, need the advice of Green politicians to optimally price their ice cream and “increase demand,” is the dumbest thing I have read in a long time. Demand in the absence of profit is not generally desirable.

2) Our wildly inflated energy costs are primarily why ice cream (and most everything else) has become so expensive. These are the direct, undeniable consequences of policies forced through by the Greens themselves. THIS IS WHY THE ENERGY TRANSITION IS BAD YOU MORONS. THIS IS WHY VIRTUOUSLY ABSTAINING FROM RUSSIAN GAS IS BAD. Expensive energy does not save the planet, it just drives up prices and increases general misery. Four-Euro ice cream scoops are the absolute least of it.

3) Were this ill-conceived plan to be implemented, the pre-established poor person’s ice cream flavour would sell out immediately – in the case of Berlin, almost certainly to a long line of male migrants claiming to be children. The parlours, to cover their losses, would have to sell the rest of their ice cream at even higher prices. Congratulations, Benedikt Lux, Tuba Bozkurt, and Marianne Burkert-Eulitz – you just managed to make ice cream even more expensive than it needs to be.

4) Yes I get the “voluntary” bit squeezed in there at the end of BILD’s reporting. You have to understand that the government is basically a protection racket. Nothing done in response to any request from a political office holder can ever really be voluntary. The reason BILD has this story is almost certainly because the industry association that the Greens tried to pressure (DEHOGA) leaked it to them, by way of defending themselves against this idiocy.