Effort Is For Suckers

A few shorters to cut through the greasy buildup:

Living Debt Free Just Got Easier: Megan McArdle praises a new less-stringent credit scoring system without telling us why anyone would prefer to use it. She likes it because it will not force people to borrow to build up credit and McArdle loathes debt, having eagerly over-borrowed in her youth. By the time she dies she will be stuffing her cash (and that of P. Suderman, boy revenue stream) in the mattress.

The Real Cost of California's Drought: The best way to deal with drought is to raise the price of water.

If we're truly worried about the poor, we could set some minimum amount of water that would be sold at a very cheap rate, with any excess charged at market rates to reflect the actual supply and the cost of providing it. This would be hugely unpopular with homeowners who have big lawns as well as with farmers. And perhaps the fabulous array of California produce would be reduced. But that seems like a reasonable price to pay for keeping California's reservoirs from running dry.

End the water subsidy! Why not?

• California is the nation’s top agricultural state, and has been for more than 50 years. Agriculture
generates approximately $37.5 billion a year, more than any other state.
• More than 60% of the state’s farms are less than 50 acres in size, one indicator of the growing
number of specialty crop operations.
• More than 90% of California farms are family farms or partnerships.
• The top 10 commodities include: milk and cream, all grapes, almonds, nursery products, cattle
and calves, all lettuce, pistachios, walnuts, and flowers and foliage.

It is true that McArdle has constantly defended a business's right to never see an increase in expenses, especially if individuals can suffer instead. It is true that McArdle has said that the cheap abundance of food in any season is the gifts of the corporate gods and an all-American right. And it is obviously also true that McArdle does not have the faintest idea of the history of California water rights, or that this history even exists. But the blessing of libertarianism is that its practitioners never need to think, they just need to call on the Free Market Fairy to take away all the problems of the world.

BONUS:

Easter Eggs For Grown-Up Tastes:

For this Friday's food column, we have an editor request: what the heck to do with all those leftover Easter eggs. This is a bit of a stumper. Not because I don't like hard-boiled eggs, but because ... don't you know what to do with them? You make deviled eggs. Or creamed eggs. Or egg salad.

This tidbit confirms two things: 1. McArdle actually does have an editor. 2. The editor is incapable of thinking of the obvious. This clears up a few mysteries but not all. We know this editor is not Brooke Sample because she's an "amateur chef." Perhaps it is James Gibney. Ah, well, we will have to wonder.

McArdle goes on to describe the obvious in the vaguest terms possible. If you are telling someone how to boil eggs, for egg salad you do not tell them to add a little of this and a little of that until it tastes right.

ADDED: I just noticed this:

Hollandaise sauce (traditional or blender)

Heh.