COMMUNICATING VESSELS

It is a consequence of a natural law that water in communicating vessels will rise to the same level. Now imagine that this law could be broken, and water levels could be controlled by the Federal Office of Water Levels. The results would be unthinkable. Toilets might not flush, or they might spew back what was put into them, for FOWL's computers would only be programmed by humans.

You cannot interfere with a natural law; but you can interfere with supply and demand if you regulate it by allocation, and the FEO's computers are no better than FOWL's would be.

As we go to press, you can get all the gas you want in Colorado, but in Phoenix, Arizona, they line up for two hours to get to the pump. If the prices were decontrolled, the computerized snafu were scrapped, and the politicians got out of the way, there would be plenty of greedy enterpreneurs to make a fast buck by trucking gasoline from Colorado to neighboring Arizona, and in Phoenix drivers would be happy to pay a few cents per gallon more instead of standing in blocklong lines. The gas level would even out all over the country.

Unfair to the poor?

The present system is unfair to everybody.