Musical chairs without music.

# 4075

You know how it goes, n people and n chairs and music. When the music stops the gods remove one chair and the n people struggle to fill the n minus 1 chairs. A moment of rushed chaos and then quiet as the chairs are filled and it is clear who lost out, and the music starts again. (I remember this from grade school in NYC.)

This is an apt metaphor. See for example this morning’s NYT article on Palm oil affecting jobs in Malaysia. The idea is that European restrictions on palm oil imports cuts jobs in Malaysia. Indeed that is happening. The crunch, like musical chairs, will cost jobs and lives as we move toward the great simplification.

Might it not be better for the crunch to be managed within Malaysia than forced from the outside? The resulting action would be much better nuances to local conditions. But it will be hard for local officials to be agents rather than victims along with their populations. The need to create lifeboats for each community will help clarify the logic.