The unmatchable Thomas Sowell;
In the course of any given year, Congress votes on taxes, medical care, military spending, foreign aid, agriculture, labor, international trade, airlines, housing, insurance, courts, natural resources, and much more.
There are professionals who have spent their entire adult lives specializing in just one of these fields. The idea that Congress can be competent in all these areas simultaneously is staggering.
In related government enacted stupidity;
Loose Lips Akerson — a telecom exec who is the latest CEO to come through GM’s revolving executive-suite door — let fly that he would like to see the “federal gas tax boosted as much as $1 a gallon to nudge consumers toward more fuel-efficient cars.” [...]
Akerson knows full well that the reason GM and Chrysler have paid off their government loans early is because fuel prices have declined, boosting the SUV market and their high per-vehicle profits. America’s low gas prices and high disposable income are why companies like Fiat are so desperate to enter the American market — because they make more money here on Jeep Grand Cherokees than on fuel-taxed, econobox Fiat 500s.
This kind of nonsense has earned Akerson scorn among auto insiders. “This is Dan Akerson live and in living color, folks,” writes veteran industry executive Peter De Lorenzo on his blog, “bringing his remarkable arrogance and nuanced cluelessness to bear on key product decisions that will affect GM’s competitive stance for years to come.”
And people wonder why GM needed a bailout?
The problem Americans don't want to admit is that they blindly believe that everyone physically in America is just a person whose opinion they disagree with.
They don't take any action even when that person has a track record of being active, determined and cunning enemy.
This is suicidal, and unfortunately it drags Canada along by the means of UN we both are members of (inconceivably).
There are many in America I've spoken with who believe that as long as Congress and Senate make laws, democracy is not broken. They are up for a rude awakening very soon I am afraid.
he would like to see the “federal gas tax boosted as much as $1 a gallon to nudge consumers toward more fuel-efficient cars
Americans don't like to be nudged.
That's why they have a 2nd Amendment.
Word is getting out that there isn't a natural fuel shortage, it's man-made.
(just like the CAGW scam)
GM "paid off its government loans'' with taxpayers' money, not its own.
Can you say "slush fund"?
See...this is why central planning doesn't work. The idiots who come up with these ideas are completely oblivious to "unintended consequences" and when they are wrong the consequences are enormous.
That is why the free market works. Rather than a handful of boneheads making decisions, there are millions of individual transactions taking place every day and every one of them, the parties are looking out for their own best interests. Some will make good decisions, some will make bad ones, but on balance the good will outweight the bad and there are only micro consequences to the players rather than macro consequences to all.
As economist Frederic Bastiat said in The Law
"If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good. Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of finer clay than the rest of mankind?"
Why would GM change it's business model in a useful manner? It has the governments of Canada & the US for it's sugar daddy.
As a 30+ year telecom veteran .... I can assure you that execs from that field .... like Akerson .... are the rule and not the exception.
Think Worldcom for example before Enron ... the worlds largest financial failure ... these guys wrote the book for the likes of GM.
The US telecom industry has destroyed possibly a trillion dollars of wealth ... without hardly being noticed. And guys like Akerson are responsible for it.
Vis-A-vis Sowell's observation, that is the central theme of libertarian political/social philosopher Herbert Spencer's most excellent, The Man vs. The State, a collection of sublimely brilliant essays:
That when government expends so much time and money on areas outside its competency it neglects its sole proper role: the administration of justice and the assurance of equal liberty for all. Were it to confine its attention to this area, justice would be quick, readily available, and virtually COSTLESS.
"I think you need to cut the hell out of the budget and you’ve got to increase taxes . . . on everybody — including the middle class and the rich people.”
I agree with the first part, but the overpaid and over-pensioned public service employees won't like it,and Akerson can lead by example and take a BIG pay cut himself.
The thread caption says it all. Not much to add to that, that has not been said by above posters.
As is being discussed in the Friedman thread above, some days it does seem the battle for freedom is going to be a tough one and much of the leadership around seems to want to enslave us to some utopian world regime. This is kind of tough to swallow for some of older coots who see bad times for our children and their rug rats.
GM just keeps proving to me that I should not buy any of their products. Too bad it did not go down.
> That's why they have a 2nd Amendment.
Yeah, but they never use it.
Yeah, but they never use it.
Ballots before bullets, Aaron.
And yes they did use it, once.
It was called the American Civil War.
Hasn't civil war predated 2A?
Just to prove my point:
http://biggovernment.com/publius/2011/05/21/sheriff-clarence-new-tone-dupnik-defends-shooting-of-iraq-vet-60-times/
I'd actually like to see the Federal Govt. tack on an extra dollar tax at the pumps just like Akerson has so lobbied.
Then, Ford Company (who didn't take a bailout, and is not run by the Federal Govt.) can file a nice juicy civil suit under the Unfair Businss Practices Act...as well as get the ball rolling on a RICO Act violation (Racketeering) naming GM and the Federal Govt. as defendants.
Cheers,
The Worm
Let's see how the GM Corporation went about getting loans, how much they got and how much they repaid.
"...lawmakers, and even the inspector general for the bailout fund GM borrowed from, point out that General Motors only repaid the bailout money by dipping into a separate pot of bailout money."
"The $6.7 billion is also just a fraction of the $52 billion General Motors received in government aid. ...lawmakers are being told government losses on GM are expected to exceed $30 billion."
"The TARP inspector general, Neil Barofsky, bluntly told the Senate Finance Committee during a hearing last week that the repayment "is just other TARP money" and lawmakers should not "exaggerate" the feat."
and "It sounds like they're kind of like taking money out of one pocket and putting it in the other to do that,"
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/26/lawmakers-accuse-gm-administration-misleading-public-loan-repayment/#ixzz1Ojns0Q8h
It must be, that the Harward crowd can say anything about anything and it is unquestionable.
99% of media will go with it without question. You might say they are helpful.
The proletariat will not question it, that is helpful.
Those that will question and find what is actually going on are few and have virtually no outlet to make it public with any kind of force.
The way it works is like this, if you are non academic, you have no right to question, just who do you think you are.
If you are someone like Palin you will be demonized, chewed up and spit out.
Look at Beck, he documented everything he said. What he was accused of was "conspiracy theory". That is a catch all phrase, kind of dead end.
If you are someone with certain amount of respect, the overwhelming propaganda against you is a dead pool.
There must be something that will stop this kind of misinformation and begin accountability mode of operation.
The current chairman of the GM is lying through his false teeth. On top of that he is in a cabal with the current president of the US.
It can be said, this is slide into socialism/fascism.
"...he would like to see the “federal gas tax boosted as much as $1 a gallon..."
And that my friends is why I bought a -Ford-.
T Sowell says it So Well
Just another example where a good education has no bearing on intelligence, and not even a hint of common sense.