If Thomas Sowell Says It...
Check out this column: "Postponing Reality"
It concerns the proposed bailouts of the Big 3 auto makers. Some excerpts:
Some of us were raised to believe that reality is inescapable. But that just shows how far behind the times we are. Today, reality is optional. At the very least, it can be postponed.Thomas Sowell is an economist who's in touch with reality. Would that there were more in charge of the crap going on today.
**********We are told that the collapse of the Big Three automakers in Detroit would have repercussions across the country, causing mass layoffs among firms that supply the automobile makers with parts, and shutting down automobile dealerships from coast to coast.
A renowned economist of the past, J.A. Schumpeter, used to refer to progress under capitalism as "creative destruction"-- the replacement of businesses that have outlived their usefulness with businesses that carry technological and organizational creativity forward, raising standards of living in the process. Indeed, this is very much like what happened a hundred years ago, when that new technological wonder, the automobile, wreaked havoc on all the forms of transportation built up around horses.
**********
While Detroit's Big Three are laying off thousands of workers, Toyota is hiring thousands of workers right here in America, where a substantial share of all our Toyotas are manufactured.Will this save Detroit or Michigan? No.
Detroit and Michigan have followed classic liberal policies of treating businesses as prey, rather than as assets. They have helped kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. So have the unions. So have managements that have gone along to get along.
Toyota, Honda and other foreign automakers are not heading for Detroit, even though there are lots of experienced automobile workers there. They are avoiding the rust belts and the policies that have made those places rust belts.
A bailout of Detroit's Big Three would be only the latest in the postponements of reality. As for automobile dealers, they can probably sell Toyotas just as easily as they sold Chevvies. And Toyotas will require just as many tires per car, as well as other parts from automobile parts suppliers.
posted by RightinFlorida | 6:00 PM
2 Comments:
Postponing reality. I like that. Sowell is so right on this subject.
It works hand in hand with Washington's policy of 'ignoring reality,' which is exactly what happened in the Freddie/Fannie/AIG mortgage meltdown. And now they look so silly in trying to 'fix' it by pouring trillions of dollars that do not exist into it.
To make it worse, or in this case, hopeless, is that there is no one left in power in Washington that has the will to stop the bleeding.
Ross, I feel your pain. And to answer your question-I fear the "best and brightest" won't be able to get us out of this. Hell, for the most part they were responsible.
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