This is my last of 220 weekly and biweekly columns. When first asked to contribute 600-word opinions, I thought it would be easy. "Simply give your opinion on anything," I was told.
It would have been easy had I not tried in every column to defend something contrarian by presenting little-known facts, compelling arguments and insights. What appeared as casual lines represented hours, sometimes days, of research. They will be republished in a book.
Happily, columns some perceived as outrageous were vindicated by subsequent data and scholarship. I received the most recent example today: Anti-Piketty is the latest in a slew of publications that expose nonsense written by Thomas Piketty, Oxfam and others who sensationalise "extreme inequality". It is increasingly obvious that there is greater equality in the world and market liberalisation has virtually eliminated destitution.
This column also challenged inequality and "lack of transformation" propaganda locally. Virtually all subsequent data and "research by looking" reveals astonishing black advancement, notwithstanding the extent to which antilabour law and regulatory diarrhoea cause unemployment and entry barriers, and government excess suppresses growth.
An early column disputed the assumption that there was a "financial crisis", that it was "global" and that it reflected "market failure". It is now clear that there were two "crises" ("subprime mortgage derivative" and "sovereign debt"), neither was "global", the former was a banking (not economic) crisis caused by US government-backed "derivatives" and the latter was a government (not market) crisis.
The failure of every South African Airways bail-out, management change and "turnaround" strategy was predicted. Because politics encourages megalomaniacs to waste other people’s money, the flight of fantasy will continue.
A common theme has been the propensity of governments to be crazy. A current example is the attack on "expiring" and "expensive" mobile data. Ordinary folk can be excused for believing data disinformation, but people paraded as experts should know that local data charges compare favourably with those of comparable countries. Our government drives prices up and consumers prefer expiring data because it is cheap.
People who say consumers cannot buy perpetual data lie. I know because I offer as much perpetual data as anyone wants. Consumers buy expiring data because they are unwilling to pay my price. They can also buy long-life data from service providers, all of which are happy to sell whatever consumers want. One of them sells data that lasts a year, another sells data that expires weekly and yet another gives "free" data with contracts. In the name of "consumer protection" regulators curtail consumer sovereignty and liberty.
There is nothing special about data. Expiry dates are commonplace because they are proconsumer. Rental days expire when tenants are away. Unwatched DStv hours, unused movie tickets, unclaimed Lotto tickets, unused rental car miles, unclaimed insurance cover, uneaten groceries, shopping vouchers, loyalty rewards, driving licences, identity documents, passports, visas, credit cards, ammunition, debts, claims, contracts and much more all expire.
If consumers are forced to buy perpetual data, they will pay around 25% more for deals they do not want. Data expiry prohibition is as loony as prohibition of food, airline ticket, or insurance claim expiry. It is as nuts as prohibiting expiry of legal debts, claims, warnings, offers, options and demands.
Just as suppliers in free markets are guided by an invisible hand to maximise consumer value, regulators are guided by an invisible foot to trample it. Forgive them, for they know not what they do. They are, after all, blinded by power.
• Louw is executive director of the Free Market Foundation.
This article was first published in Business Day on 16 August 2017