We are like fish, swimming wide-eyed through an ocean of blood, that no longer taste the horror in which we are suspended. On Dec. 19th, eight days after the automotive bailout bill failed in the senate, former President George W. Bush used his executive power to direct $13.4 billion to the automotive industry—$9.4 billion for General Motors and $4 billion for Chrysler. This is a measure only 36 percent of the country supported, according to a December CNN poll. The cost of this bailout will be tossed atop the $10.6 trillion U.S. debt, according to the treasury. This is a debt our generation will be forced to spend its lifetime repaying.
To add insult to injury, one of the first things Chrysler did with its money was take out a full-page, color ad in The Wall Street Journal and USA Today entitled “Thank You America — thank you for investing in Chrysler” signed by Bob Nardelli, Chrysler’s CEO and Chairman.
It’s hard to imagine something more disgusting.
Usually when one says “investing,” one refers to voluntarily exchanging money for a share in future profits. But the “investing” of Bush’s executive order was involuntary. It occurred not through the invisible hand of the free market but through the iron fist of government power.
To call this “investing” is to kidnap and call it a date. To call this “investing” is to enslave and insist that it is employment. To call this “investing” is to rape and plead that it is lovemaking.
One does not have to be an economic expert to appreciate the reality of this situation. The government finances the automakers’ bailout through taxation, through you.
If you do not pay your taxes, then you will receive a court summons. If you do not answer your court summons, then men with guns will come to your door. If you resist them, then you will be shot.
The Detroit Bailout—like all bailouts and all government action—is made possible by the threat of violence. This is the gun in the room Nardelli wants you to ignore. This is the gun that forces Nardelli to lie.
As Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote, “violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle.”
If one wishes to speak with honesty and clarity about our society, one must begin by pointing out the difference between voluntary and coercive action; and by pointing out the gun.
This is the gun that forces people to act against their self-interest. This is the gun that damns politicians to a lifetime of deceit and bribery. This is the gun that both political parties will gladly wield in exchange for the glories of political power.
Despite having to crawl to Congress late last year, Chrysler was stable enough to donate almost $900,000 to political causes in the latest election cycle. United Auto Workers, who begged and pleaded alongside them, gave more than $2 million to the Democrats in 2008, according to opensecrets.org. These voluntary measures, unlike the bailout, could be considered an investment.
When Bush used his executive power to pay back Chrysler, the democratic process failed to represent the will of the people. But we still have the ability to vote with our dollars. The next time you need to buy a car, don’t feel pressured to “Buy American.”
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Nobody should blindly buy anything. However, many people, for valid reasons or not, blindly ignore American. That is a shame for obvious reasons. When I buy vehicles, I always look at all models in the given class. Sometimes that means an American product ends up in the garage, sometimes it doesn’t. I feel that I don’t owe anybody an apology for that.
Hating the United Auto Worker World is enough for me to buy anything BUT an American automobile. I despise the lack of quality and durability of the big 3 companies. They are horrible organizations led by idiotic morons out for their own self interests.
“TTAC continues its quest to post article after article that will serve no purpose than to aid in damaging the domestics.”
Yes, the U.S. domestic auto industry will be/ is crippled not by their poor management decisions, generally uncompetetive product, or unsustainable liabilities, but by commentary from a website.
The involuntary nature of taxation did not start with the bailout of US auto manufacturers.
There are many things we are forced by our governments to do (or pay for) that we don’t agree with and ultimately the government’s authority against individuals is backed by force – though usually by taking your property away rather than by shooting you.
Although this article is colourful – it is not, in my view, anything like “The Truth”. It’s just spinning, like Nardelli.
Let’s see, the US auto companies:
1) Wouldn’t give me a job.
2) Sold me poor quality cars.
3) Their dealers treated me like shit.
Of course it’s my patriotic duty to be loyal to them as an American. When are they going to start being loyal to me?
The bailout of Chrysler bothers me far more than the bailout of GM or even the insanely criminal financial industry. Chrysler is a subsidiary of Cerberus Capital, a private company made up of many other subsidiaries with billions in reserve.
Cerberus had no right to ask the taxpayer to shore up their piss poor investment.
The Detroit Bailout — like all bailouts and all government action — is made possible by the threat of violence. …
To characterize legal enforcement of laws passed by elected representatives as violence, is like kidnapping and calling it a date. …
If one wishes to speak with honesty and clarity about our society, one must begin by pointing out the difference between a representative republic and a democracy.
“This is the gun that forces people to act against their self-interest.”
Yes, because if everyone acted in their own self-interest ALL the time we’d have come so much farther as a society.
Not that I agree with the bailout (GM and Chrysler deserve to die, Ford – not so much). But government makes mistakes; that doesn’t mean their very existence is a grave miscarriage of justice.
“I despise the lack of quality and durability of the big 3 companies”
Typical anti domestic venom. Totally baseless. Simply an untruth. But if you keep saying it over and over and over…
Dynamic88 :
I believe you’re mischaracterizing the statement. Mr. Morgan is stating the fact that the threat of violence underpins all governmental actions.
Whether you agree with the application of that power, the underlying assumption is sound.
There is a feedback loop, of course. We have elections to alter the use and/or curtail the abuse of the public trust/will.
But, lest we forget, the bailout bridge to nowhere failed in the United States Congress. It was revived by the president by executive order.
Was it an end run around the will of the people? It sure as hell (small “h”) looks that way to me. Regardless, we, as taxpayers, are FORCED to pay for this folly. And then criticized if we choose not to support the bailout through our decisions as consumers.
Even if you think that Chrysler should survive, or GM, at the taxpayers’ expense, that’s got to stick in your craw. Of, if it doesn’t, it should.
What is an American car? That Canadian Impala with the Chinese engine? An Australian G8? The Mexican built Focus on the Japanese platform? A Chrysler 20% owned by Germans, and 35% by Italians built in Mexico? I live in Warren,Mi…and have no idea what an American car is. If they want me to buy one, build one here. And build it right. And guarantee resale for 10 years.
I believe your mischaracterizing the statement. Mr. Morgan is stating the fact that the threat of violence underpins all governmental actions.
With respect to both you and Mr. Morgan, I believe most people agree with most govt. action – given that laws are passed by our elected reps, and our elected reps are frequently re-elected- and therefore public interest underpins most governmental actions.
Even if you think that Chrysler should survive, or GM, at the taxpayers’ expense, that’s got to stick in your craw. Of, if it doesn’t, it should.
I’m sorry, I may be a bit dense here, but I’m not sure what is supposed to be sticking in my craw – if it’s being forced to pay my taxes, it doesn’t, for the reasons I’ve noted above. If it’s being criticized for not buying American, I take that on the chin.
There are the few who refuse to obey the law, and enforcement action is taken against them. Enforcement can be characterized as violence, I suppose, but most people don’t need to be threatened. If one does not pay taxes, one’s money doesn’t go to Chrysler, but then, it also doesn’t go to roads, schools, police departments, fire departments, the military, Katrina victims….
Was it an end run around the will of the people? It sure as hell (small “h”) looks that way to me. Regardless, we, as taxpayers, are FORCED to pay for this folly. And then criticized if we choose not to support the bailout through our decisions as consumers.
We are indeed FORCED to pay for the bailout, whether we think it’s folly or not. I’m not sure a true democracy -with several hundred million voters weighing in on every bill is workable. But hey, maybe we should give it a try. I am sure that if paying taxes were optional, there would be no schools, roads, police, firefighters, EMTs, etc. Most of us have accepted the fact that the govt. will collect taxes, and will spend it in a variety of ways, some of which we agree with, and some we don’t. That’s life. Most of us have made peace with this fact. There are 300 million of us here, sometimes things won’t always go my way.
I don’t know who is criticizing you for not buying an American car, but it’s hard for me to believe you feel much pressure. I don’t, and I live in Michigan.
IF AMERICAN ONE SHOULD TRY TO BUY AMERICAN
I have no loyalty to the USA, I am not an American with not ties to the States. So why do I make the statement above?
1) Not every car that is made in America is bad, there are quite a few American cars that have good value, good reliability and could stand up with the best imports.
2) I have an Accord, but given a hot summers day traveling long distances, I would take a good American Car with its effective Air Conditioning over an import.
3) Despite hatred of American Auto Workers expressed above, I would warrant that good American cars are made with American pride and for every US Auto worker job saved, there are also another dozen jobs that depend on that job saved (Steel, tool shops, parts suppliers, truckers, train drivers, car salesmen, etc etc)
4) If us Swedes had a choice we would have saved our auto industry (we were not given that option), you guys have your chance. You will be sorry if you lose your own auto industry
Having said this, I cant say a good word, or give a good reason to save Chrysler.
The only reason to buy American and/or to support the bailout is a national security one. Every nation, to be secure, must be able to provide for itself. If we lose our manufacturing capability and become totally dependent on foreign factories, any number of international incidents could suddenly stop the flow of goods. We have already completely ceded many industries, are we to cede the auto manufacturing also? Suppose we find ourselves in another WWII scenario, but no longer have the ability to design and produce tanks, jeeps, etc. The auto factories converted to wartime production in WWII and we could need them again. Could we depend on our foreign suppliers to produce our weapons and thus our protection, if they happened to disagree with our point of view? How could we risk that?
We have become a high cost producer and have priced ourselves out of our own market. We need a 50 year reset on labor laws, environmental laws, etc. All the things that cause us not to be price competitive with off shore producers. We need to become a net exporter again, somehow, anyhow. Let all the Mexicans in if thats what it takes.
Bridge2far quoted somebody else:
“I despise the lack of quality and durability of the big 3 companies”
Typical anti domestic venom. Totally baseless. Simply an untruth. But if you keep saying it over and over and over…
It may be venomous, but I can sympathize with such venom, because I too have felt it. Quality, lack of durability, and in some cases, inept service and even fraudulent practices.
And that’s the Truth.
I’d take that CNN “poll” with a grain of salt as the vast majority of Americans do not have the knowledge to answer that question properly.
“Suppose we find ourselves in another WWII scenario, but no longer have the ability to design and produce tanks, jeeps, etc”
Uh, this ain’t the 1940s. When Eisenhower warned of the “military-industrial complex” it was because we had divorced the production of war armaments from the rest of manufacturing.
The Detroit3 could disappear and it doesn’t matter. We make tanks, planes, Hummers, guns, etc. totally without them. And sell them around the world. Oh, and fight a war on two fronts by the way.
The ‘national security’ argument is totally false.
Well, America does have class leading products in some areas. I believe the best all-around sports car in the world is the Corvette.
It’s got a big hatch, it can get reasonable gas mileage because of the engine’s colossal low-end torque, it’s fast as hell, sounds good doing it, can be equipped to where the interior isn’t Mattel-grade, it costs over eight grand, but it also includes power memory seats, a telescoping steering wheel, Bose surround sound, a Head-Up Display, side airbags, heated seats, and some other stuff too, so it’s not like how Porsche charges you $180 for floor mats on a $70,000 911.
It has great grip, the steering is improved, the stock tires last pretty from what I’ve seen, it’s got a good share of gadgets, it has one of the most reliable and the most popular engine of all time- the Chevy-small block, it has a variety of tuners, and it competes with the 911, V8 Vantage, R8, and others of that strata for a $47K base price.
The Corvette is an American car you don’t have to feel guilty about not buying.
We The People have given the government this “point of the gun” authority to collect taxes.
Each time we vote for the same politicians or don’t vote at all (thereby allowing a bad one to gain office or another bad one to remain in office), we are giving our consent to be governed in the way that those politicians see fit.
Therefore, I think we are getting everything we want and everything we deserve.
Or maybe just everything that our education system has indoctrinated us to think that we want and deserve…
Therefore, everything’s just fine and dandy because, after all, it’s working EXACTLY how We The People want it to.
And that’s my one last choice. As long as We The People allow me to choose what car to drive, I will choose what I want. Part of that decision is to not choose what I don’t want. I don’t want to support union thuggery or paying for people to not work.
So there!
Just like when the government takes my money and uses it to pay for the air traffic control system. Sure, there would be a few collisions from time to time, but, hey, we don’t need no nanny state.
I remain convinced the USA is in the throes of class warfare.
Thank you for the article. It is one of the very best this site has done.
Wow, I love the article. I felt so alone in my coming to the conclusion that it’s the threat of violence that is behind every law. I have so much anger at this country because of that. I better vent it out, in a healthy way of course. I’m also mad at Americans and the world. Things are really messed up on a lot of levels. People are really messed up.
I’ll continue working on my issues, including accepting others as they are and living my life as best I can.
I’d like to add that I do not consider myself a taxpayer in a sense. I look at taxes like I look at computer software. Some things are running in the background of my pc, I don’t care I just want a fast and capable pc that does not get in my way.
“# obbop :
January 30th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
I remain convinced the USA is in the throes of class warfare.”
Fully agreed – and it is about time. Look around where did all the lassez-faire and other devastating policies of the ruling class take us…
I will consider buying American when they will bring this one (or something very close to it) here: http://totalcar.hu/tesztek/insignia20cd/
Let me start by saying I only own American branded products. American branded cars actually are the best ones for my needs. I have no particular loyalty. I do my research. I test drive and American branded cars deliver what I want and the best price.
I use the term American branded cars because no cars are made purely in America anymore. It would be hard to find a ride where even 50% of the total labor hours (effort to build parts and the final assembly) comes from American labor.
That being said, our ability to buy any brand at great prices is a function of the strength of the US dollar and the willingness of every large foreign nation to lower their standards of living in order to loan us massive amounts of money.
If the dollar ever caves in and/or the foreign lenders won’t/can’t lend us anymore money, foreign labor and foreign parts will become very expensive and all you’ll be able to afford are domestic cars made with domestic parts.
It won’t matter if they are well made or made like crap, you’ll buy them because you’ll have to. Buying an “American” car right now won’t prevent this, just like buying a “foreign” car won’t make it happen any faster.
So if you want to support GM Brazil or GM China, buy a GM car!
Even GM isn’t dumb enough to invest profits in a country that borrows money every week just to pay interest on the money we borrowed last week.
Welcome to the Global Economy!
There seem to be a fair number of people in the world that are in denial about being adults. They don’t want their tax money going to filthy programs like car bailouts, but they sure as hell want the government to have contract law, civil courts, police to enforce civil judgments, and so on. If you want the government to enforce and advance your economic rights, you have a reciprocal obligation to deal with some policies you don’t like.
After people in England made the “government is violence” argument in the 1600s, people realized that anarchy is actually a lot worse.
As for America, we tried having a weak central government and minimal taxes from 1776-1789. It was a dismal failure, and resulted in a rebellion that almost overthrew the federal government.
The “free hand” of the market is equally “violent” as any government. You think debtor’s prison was nice? Victorian England, which was about as close as you get to libertarian life in relatively modern times, was an absolutely horrible place to live for all but the most wealthy. Business leaders like uh, Rick Wagoner and Bernie Madoff can abuse the market and steal your money? At least you can vote politicians out of office.
People seem a lot more pissed off about a government that unduly interferes in the economy than one that can tap your phones without a warrant, or that has thrown due process out the window. Can’t really understand this line of thinking. But it seems like many people in the US share opinions with those in Russia and China – as long as they are able to keep their money, they don’t care about actual freedoms.
“People seem a lot more pissed off about a government that unduly interferes in the economy than one that can tap your phones without a warrant, or that has thrown due process out the window. Can’t really understand this line of thinking.”
QFT
@ Justin Berkowitz: “People seem a lot more pissed off about a government that unduly interferes in the economy than one that can tap your phones without a warrant, or that has thrown due process out the window.”
Oh, trust me – hating .gov for its interference in business affairs is in no way mutually exclusive for detesting it for trampling my natural rights.
I firmly believe that our rights have been curtailed in recent years in such a way to empower the government in the event of an economic collapse (such as the one that may be unfolding now). I’ll save that sort of ranting for other websites, however.
Was it an end run around the will of the people?
The people’s representatives in the legislative branch were in general agreement that the president had the power to act under the TARP, 136 and through the Fed. The president, elected twice, acted in accordance with the law. Nobody has challenged the legality or constitutionality of the loan package.
We don’t govern our country based on polls, but rather on the results of the last election. Right now 42% of people oppose the “stimulus” package. Should that figure rise above 50% do you think it will stop the Democrats from passing it?
Them’s the breaks. It’s how things work here. The “will of the people” is expressed by the most recent election results.
You’re not happy with loans to the domestic automakers, I’m not happy with the largest expansion in spending on government programs since Johnson’s Great Society and dressing it up in a “stimulus” package. If the $800 trillion was all going to infrastructure and tax incentives and other things with measurable economic benefit multipliers, that would be one thing. Instead it’s full of pork and pet Democratic projects. The loans to the automakers are what, about 2% of the stimulus package?
Washington’s fiscal irresponsibility, which I suppose means all of our irresponsibility since we elected them, makes anything Detroit has done look small. You may think that’s moral relativism. I think it’s placing things in perspective.
“Instead it’s full of pork and pet Democratic projects.”
You meant Republican, right? Stupid and useless tax breaks, to please the clueless or cynically egoist Repugs – take up almost 40% of this crap bill.
golden2husky: “Nobody should blindly buy anything. However, many people, for valid reasons or not, blindly ignore American. That is a shame for obvious reasons. When I buy vehicles, I always look at all models in the given class. Sometimes that means an American product ends up in the garage, sometimes it doesn’t. I feel that I don’t owe anybody an apology for that.”
Who’s asking you to apologize for it? You want to buy Detroit? Go right ahead.
On the other hand, a Japanese-branded manufacturer has earned my trust and loyalty. I will sleep better at night buying another one, and I won’t waste time considering other products. I have no plans to apologize for that.
Justin:
These are good points, and I sympathize, but you’re mistaken in thinking that this is an either/or question. We should all be thinking about this question on a continuum. “Filthy bailouts vs civil services” isn’t a sufficiently complex description of the issues. We’re all much more likely to be adversely affected by the curtailment of our civil liberties than by an ultimately small addition to our national debt. But just like the national security vs individual liberty pendulum swings both ways, this one does, as well.
I think that it’s also worth mentioning that we don’t really live in a representative democracy as it is. I don’t think that anyone will argue that Congress is representative of the demographic profile of American public. Either way, how does an action taken by a single elected official (with literally zero political accountability) qualify as an act of a representative democracy? Isn’t this argument about presidential power, rather than the democratic process?
The IRS rarely sends people with guns to your house, they just seize your assets.
And it’s all legal. I have no particular problem with it; we have some order and structure to our society and it takes money to run the things we do collectively. We have representatives, duly elected, in most cases, to work out things politically.
Daniel Morgan, I think your problem is that you’ve spent much too much time reading Ayn Rand and enjoying the fantasies of her Universe of Perfect People. You should get out more.
You want laissez-faire everything? Try Somalia. You’ll love it. Their government won’t bother you.
Kix Start:
Daniel Morgan, I think your problem is that you’ve spent much too much time reading Ayn Rand and enjoying the fantasies of her Universe of Perfect People. You should get out more.
You want laissez-faire everything? Try Somalia. You’ll love it. Their government won’t bother you.
Winner.
I won’t so much “buy American” as I’ll “buy local” when I pick up my family hauler next fall/year. The Toyota plant 5 miles down the road has been a major boost for our economy here in SW West Virginia. The Venza, which has really impressed me, is assembled in Georgetown, KY and the transmission comes from Buffalo, WV. Buying a Venza helps my family, friends, and neighbors.
The mountain bike frame I purchased last evening was hand built in Bedford, PA, which is ~ 60 miles from my parent’s house. This is my 2nd Cannondale to come out of that factory.
All my dinner-ware is made in West Virginia as well (Fiesta Ware).
Basically, buying a car built in Detroit does very little, to nothing, for my local economy. Considering I live and work in one of the poorest states in the union, I prefer to keep a majority of my large purchases local and I frankly don’t care where the 5 ~ 10% profit goes (Japan for Toyota, CT for Cannondale). The majority of what I spend on these items is staying in my local economy.
Yeah, I realize my post is largely off-topic, but I wanted to state my case for my decisions.
Without the government, there would be a real threat of violence from organized mafias, warlords, bullies. Rather than the government being the enemy, it is the only institution that protects us.
Sometimes the government doesn’t do it job, such as with the SEC during the Bush administration, or the FDA, or many other agencies. That is because the government was being influenced by the bullies.
Now the whole economy is unraveling, and businesses are starting to realize that the consumer is not some kind of sheep to be eaten but actually a goose that lays golden eggs. But it may be too late. We have to question the entire basis of our economy. Can we even have an economy that is not based on more and more consumption? I don’t think anyone has figured out what will replace a system that is unsustainable.
So we turn to the government, because, who should we turn to? Wall Street? Halliburton? Exxon? Tom Delay? Rush Limbaugh?
Since we are a nation ruled by people and not by a divine king, we have to come up with our own solution.
Personally, I don’t think giving health insurance subsidies to layed off workers is the worst thing the govenment can do. It may stave off foreclosure. I would rather have my tax money help a family stay alive and in their home than give it to Bankers as bonuses. It seems many people on this board are more upset about giving money to the auto industry than upset with the way the bankers have used the money to enrich themselves.
I agree with just about everything in the article, save that Ford has not (yet) taken any patriot crack. My money is being taken at gunpoint to prop up two companies that are “important” enough not to have to go through established procedures like bankruptcy court like all other failing companies.
I would like to thank the people that read and commented on my editorial story. It was originally written for another publication, but Robert asked me to post it here.
It looks like I stirred up the controversy that he was looking for. ;-)
The editorial that I wrote was very polemic and did not touch on the real issues at hand. I was not commenting on the wisdom of the bailout itself, but merely on the language with which the bailout was dressed.
Commenting on the bailout itself, I have full faith and confidence that the US economy would be able to adapt without a taking our money. This interview did an excellent job of addressing that point some time back.
As to the responses to what I actually wrote, I think that keeping the violent nature of government in mind is absolutely essential. It is a facet of reality that the people that define legality have a monopoly on force. The fact that we sometimes benefit from the current arrangement does not change that fact, and it should be remembered even if we don’t actively work toward alternatives.
Oh, and KixStart,
You’ll be happy to hear that Somalia is actually far improved since they entered statelessness. Their people’s lives are not on a Western level, but they far exceed the lives of comparable neighbors.
http://peterleeson.com/better_off_stateless.pdf
Thought that that was worth quickly addressing!
Reads like something I would have written in high school.
Good thing I’ve wised up in the intervening 15 years… I didn’t realize how much of a know-nothing jackass I was.
To be honest, I can sort of see a logic to buying domestic, in my case the UK. I’ve got a Jaguar X-Type (built in the UK and a lot of the parts come from the UK) and a Toyota Yaris (whilst built in France, a lot of the parts come from the UK, one of which, I manufactured personally! Same with the X-Type) and part of the reason (about 40%) was that I wanted to support the UK industry. The other 60% was because they were the right cars for me. I could have bought a Honda Jazz (built in Japan) and a BMW 3-series (built in Germany), but the thought of sending my money there, just wasn’t appealing for me.
It’s not just with cars, I feel like this. When I go shopping, I go out of my way to buy stuff made in the UK or, at the very least, made by a UK company. Part of the reason is economic patriotism, but most of it karma.
I’m buying these products to make sure UK people have jobs. Likewise, I’d like to think that one day, people will buy the product that supports my job. Germany have been doing this for ages.
In my old job (a German company), they changed the mobile phone provider from Vodafone (UK) to T-Mobile (German), their suppliers were German, even when they installed a database system, they gave Oracle the cold shoulder and bought SAP (German), their fleet of cars were either German (BMW) or built in Germany (Vauxhall Vectra). They just supported any German company they could.
Even in an advert for Siemens engineering, I noticed the people were wearing Adidas clothes and had SAP on the computer screen!
Anyway, back to the article.
The bit which makes me fume (on behalf of Americans) is the fact how Detroit got a bailout, but it got it by hoodwinking the government and/or the people. They alluded that their reason for asking for a bailout was that the downturn (i.e Credit crisis) was so sharp, that they couldn’t forecast for it.
Any TTACers will know this to be a falsehood. All the credit crisis did was catalyse their demise. When credit was plentiful, Detroit still couldn’t turn a profit. But they successfully got what they wanted.
This bailout was bad for 2 reasons:
1. It’s supporting a broken business model (i.e good money after bad).
and
2. It undermines the United States when it preaches free capitalist values (”Yes, countries of the world, let’s your economies run free and let the market decide. If a company fails, it should fail, no socialist values here……unless the company failing is american, then, you should help it.”)
It’s not all bad, Ford is a company which, with a little care and attention, could be an American car company to be proud of.
Daniel Morgan :
You’ll be happy to hear that Somalia is actually far improved since they entered statelessness. Their people’s lives are not on a Western level, but they far exceed the lives of comparable neighbors.
So you’re advocating anarchy? That’s what the freshly minted professor who authored that article is doing.
The flaw in that article’s author’s thesis is that he’s comparing Somali statelessness now to a very bad government beforehand. That doesn’t make anarchy better than any government, it makes anarchy (possibly) preferable to a very bad government.
That’s a very weak thesis by political science standards. Then again, he’s not a political scientist. He’s an economist.
Mind you his paper ignores (or shall we give him the benefit of the doubt and say predates?) any of the developments of international piracy based in Somalia. That’s the market solving right there. No government, no money, the people turn to hijacking freighters. The market will solve again, of course, by armed guards shooting the pirates to death and burning their port city to the ground.
Kinda Ayn Rand-ish.
A simple concept, flawed at its core, defended with flowing prose.
We’ve (in effect) pointed the gun at our own heads?
Anyway, look to greed and consumerism to answer the question – we took the sacrifices of the greatest generation and squandered them, buyng all things coveted.
The engine of commerce is “flex fuel”; our greedy desire chose the fuel called “hubris”.
“Hubris” in the mistaken idea that our country’s future, and even the future of the planet would somehow benefit by the “good life” that became the birthright of Americans.
Hey, that was pretty good! (but undoubtedly flawed in its simplicity)
Maybe we should all “take” a car from them for free and call it a “contribution”.
It is important for human freedom not to purchase anything from these infantile/weak-minded taxtaker parasites.
The last two times I went out to buy “a car”, the Americans were simply not present, unless one subscribes to the absurdity that a rebadged Daewoo designed and built on the other side of the globe should be considered “American”. The only Americans who would have benefited from that purchase work at the dealer who I bought my S2000 from, so I consider myself settled on that front.
To tell the truth, even before the bailout, the only American car I would buy is a Ford product. I wouldn’t buy a Chrysler because I don’t want my money going towards Cerberus’ smoke and mirrors show, and I don’t think they haven’t made a decent product since the second-gen Stratus. And I wouldn’t buy a GM product because I didn’t want my money going towards Rick Wagoner’s paycheck. Ford is the only one deserving of my cash.
When you stop and consider how many GM Ford and Chrysler models are made in foreign factories, and how many Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, and Toyota (as well as M-B, BMW, and VW) cars are made on American soil, the patriotic thing to do is buy one of the American made cars. At least the foreign companies are reinvesting profits back into America. Sure they get tax breaks, so does every company and industry at one time or another. But people pay their bills with wealth earned building these “foreign” cars, and not by stealing money from me.
“This is a debt our generation will be forced to spend its lifetime repaying.”
Highly unlikely, it will be quietly monetized as needed to manage market interest rates.
“But the ‘investing’ of Bush’s executive order was involuntary.”
By your logic, all government action is “involuntary”. Unless you are an anarchist, this house of rhetorical cards quickly falls of its own weight.
“Wow, I love the article. I felt so alone in my coming to the conclusion that it’s the threat of violence that is behind every law.”
Government is the one sector of society empowered to employ violence. It is the very nature of government. Personally, I want my government to be able to use the threat of, or reality of, violence to pursue, capture, try, convict and incarcerate criminals. Of course we all have varying ideas of what behavior is in fact criminal. Democratic systems empower voters in aggregate and over the long haul to determine what the laws are. Monarchies and other forms of dictatorship leave that power directly in the hands of one (or a few) people. There are idealists who try to imagine a world where violence and the threat of violence do not play a role in effective government. Their fantasy is just that, a fantasy.
Justin,
Are you advocating occupation and nation-building in Somalia, to end the anarchy there and stop the piracy?
Seriously, I think your argument misses the point of the author’s paper. It’s an economic thesis, written by an economic professor, but you wish to judge it as a political science one for some reason, so naturally it will be “flawed” by your standards.
Back to autos and auto biz stuff, now.
We should support laws which require domestic production, to lessen our trade deficit and support the dollar. Domestic production can be Honda in Ohio or Hyundai in Alabama.
No one should be forced to buy cars they do not want.