The Economics Of Hate

In Econ 101, students (with the notable exception of New York’s “It-Girl” politician, who clearly slept through that class at Boston University on her way to a cum laude B.A. in economics and international relations), learn the fundamental relationship between supply and demand. The downward-sloping demand curve and the upward sloping supply curve – and the price mechanism that connects them – define the free-market for goods and services. As we have seen recently in the news, they also underlie the market for hate.
Ceteris paribus – “all things being equal,” an economist’s second favorite phrase after “on the other hand” – when demand outstrips supply, the market reacts by raising prices and/or increasing supply until equilibrium is achieved. Unmet demand for a product at market price also opens opportunities for illegal alternatives. Think about those fake designer handbags sold to tourists on NYC’s Canal St. That’s where we are in the market for hate in America.
The demand for hate crimes has outstripped the supply. Even the excretable Southern Poverty Law Center has to cook the books to make it seem like the number of hate groups in America is increasing. So while the scaremongers at NPR headline the SPLC report “U.S. Hate Groups Rose 30 Percent In Recent Years, Watchdog Group Reports,” the truth is that the definition of “hate group” includes “Biblical Worldview Ministry,” a small 501(c)3 in Georgia, and ProEnglish, “the nation’s leading advocate of official English.”
Tellingly, since the supply of real hate and hate crimes hasn’t increased to meet demand, counterfeiters have stepped in peddling fake hate crimes. The infamous Jussie Smollett case is only the latest in a long, sad string of obvious fakery reported everywhere from college campuses to exclusive enclaves in Democrat-machine cities like Chicago. Smollett had to hire Nigerians to do the job Americans don’t do.
At AmericanThinker.com, Frank Hawkins recently compiled a sampling of fake hate crimes since 2016 (“Trump’s Presidency Triggered a Wave of Fake Hate Crimes”) with links to the original reporting. Some gems:

• The delightfully named James Polite defaced a Brooklyn synagogue with Nazi-themed vandalism and set fires in a Jewish community center. Trump supporters were blamed; Polite is gay and black.
• Near Kansas State University, Dauntarius Williams confessed to vandalizing his own car with racist messages. Before the truth was revealed, however, classes were cancelled. Students demonstrated. The FBI opened a civil rights investigation. Yes, Trump supporters were blamed. Yes, Dauntarius is black.
• In New York City, Baruch College student Yasmin Seweid filed a police report claiming three drunken white men yelled anti-Islamic insults and the always-scary “Donald Trump!” at her on the subway and tried to grab her hijab. Turns out this fake hate was purely self-serving: This dim-bulb had been out drinking with her friends, broke her curfew, and wanted to escape the consequences of her family’s disapproval.
  From fake #MeToo claims to real crimes with fake motives but real damage, the market for hate grows because demand is high and growing (on the Left, only it seems) and the price is too low. Some fakers are eventually outed and charged with the crimes they committed. But the punishments have been too mild for these vile crimes that tear at the fabric of our nation.
  Forcing people to pay the price is the key to reducing demand. It’s time to make examples of the peddlers of fake hate. Significant minimum sentences – five years? ten years? – and fines exceeding the cost of wasted police resources might deter all but the most determined hate-counterfeiters. Perhaps it’s time to call this what it is: a form of domestic terrorism.
  In Smollett’s case, he’s been arrested, and his future in show-biz is uncertain. If the writers at his former show, “Empire,” had any sense of humor, justice, and irony, they would write off his character, Jamal Lyon, in a ripped-from-the-headlines fake-hate-crime-gone-wrong storyline. If they were clever, they’d take a page from Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities and have Jamal hit and killed by a car driven by a Sherman McCoyesque “Master of the Universe” during the commission of the faked hate crime Jamal staged.
  There would be plenty of guest-starring roles for race hustlers, incurious or in-cahoots journalists, conniving politicians, and talking heads from Progressive nonprofits up to no good (like the SPLC). Perhaps Rev. Al Sharpton and Sen. Kamala Harris could have cameos. Presented this way, maybe even the “It Girl” could understand the basics of supply and demand.

Ken Gorrell can be reached at kengorrell@gmail.com