Posted by
Compassionate Conservative on Monday, April 27, 2009 9:24:10 PM
Ever devoted to liberal causes and policies, the Patriot-News today published an article assessing the first 100 days of the Obama administration, with the bottom line being, as expressed in the subhead, that Obama himself is "building on broad appeal." To support this claim, the P-N interviewed some Central PA residents who praised Obama's performance so far, then threw in a few quotes from conservatives they deemed "highly partisan."
There was one quote in particular, however, that I believe undeniably sums up a lot of the sentiment the average American has toward Obama's economic policies. One Doug Davis of Lower Paxton was quoted as saying that Obama is doing well so far, in his opinion, because he is making the banks and car companies "do right." And whatever does that mean? Banks and car companies in this country are accountable to many parties, but primarily to their customers and stockholders - to the former to produce products worth buying, and to the latter for making a profit that can be shared through dividends and stock appreciation. Where does or should the government enter the picture?
Certainly we shouldn't expect the government to know more about running banks and car companies than bankers and auto executives, and to whom will government bureaucrats be accountable? They won't be accountable to customers and shareholders, that's for sure. Maybe they should be accountable to the taxpayers who are ponying up the cash to bail these companies out, but bureaucrats tend to think that the taxpayer dollar is actually theirs, and the government's record of accountability with regards to the efficient spending of tax dollars is abysmal, to say the least.
If Mr. Davis and other Americans want banks and car companies to "do right," therefore, they should leave knowledgeable industry executives in charge of those companies and force them to be accountable to the very people who have a vested interest in securing a favorable outcome for those companies, a group that clearly doesn't include the government. And if these individuals and organizations are unable to effect a favorable outcome, these companies will go the way of all failed businesses - bankruptcy - to be replaced by companies in their respective industries that can effect a favorable outcome. The free market economy is ruthless like that.
Unfortunately, far too few Americans want to hear that anymore. They want the government to just "do something" - anything - that will spare them the pain of a recession, no matter how necessary that pain is to ultimately make the economy stronger for the long term. As a result, although the economy will have some sort of recovery in the short term, unless we do something to curtail rampant government spending and the inevitable tax increase on the most productive segment of society, the long term looks bleak. It must be time to dig out the old W.I.N. (Whip Inflation Now) buttons.