Secretary Lahood...made a joke about the fact that some conservatives believe that the way he wants to use the Department of Transportation represents an increased government intrusion in people’s lives...“Some conservative groups are wary of the livable communities program, saying it's an example of government intrusion into people's lives,” said the moderator. “How do you respond?”...[LaHood replied]“About everything we do around here is government intrusion in people's lives,” said LaHood. “So have at it.”...Secretary of Transporation LaHood Says He Wants to 'Coerce' People Out of Their Cars, CNS News, 5/22/2009
Have at it, indeed. The attitude of this administration, expressed well in a favorite book on Pennsylvania Avenue, Animal Spirits, by George Akerlof and Robert Shiller, is that Americans are somewhat akin to pets who have to be house-trained out of such habits as imagining they are rational enough to make decisions about what to do with their money. This is the Left's deepest and most destructive pathology. When conditions change, as they have, instead of acknowledging that what was right last year probably isn't any longer, a conclusion that is being drawn by tens of millions of Americans without assistance from arrogant boobs like Secretary LaHood, the Left comes out with a thesis, which shows, once and for all, the ghastly failure of free societies and capitalist economies that depend on the little doggies and kitty cats to make intelligent decisions.
Imagine, when gasoline was the 1970s dollar equivalent of twenty-nine cents a gallon, as it was for years, buyers thought it was just fine to purchase heavy, enormous, comfortable, and safe vehicles that burned a gallon every dozen miles or so. Was this a childish failure to perceive the truth? No, it was a reasonable response to the way things were. When the way things were changed to gasoline that set you back eighty or ninety dollars a tank, people did something amazing. They stopped buying big, heavy, comfortable vehicles, all on their own, without the need for a scolding or a muzzle. Guess who made the most spectacularly bad decisions?
Oh, my goodness, could it be GM management and the UAW's leadership! Was it the American citizen's fault, or the idiot at General Motors whose market research didn't include the cost of ownership? The Left, with its powerful bond to corporations that behave with as much disregard for the contingent fact in markets as it does in politics, could not possibly blame the corporation, which is just another collective driven, in large degree, by the greatest good for the greatest number? GM could not possibly have made such a mistake. It was only responding to consumers (both the government and GM management will tell you this without your even asking).
Okay, how can Secretary LaHood and Obama's new CEO of Government Motors explain the 45% decline in sales of GM cars since the gas boom last summer? Could it be that the buyers are far out front of the GM's transparently hapless managers and the President's blathering idiot at Transportation? Could it be that ordinary citizens, making ordinary consumer choices, are acting perfectly rationally in refusing to buy GM's heavy, gas-guzzling vehicles?
Don't expect 'Yes' from the Secretary of Transportation. His traditional Lefty arrogance, not to mention his reading list, won't permit him to observe what's true, only what's right. Idiots like this have been living off the taxed profits of successful societies and enterprises for centuries. He's living off of you. Now, he wants a raise. This doggie needs to be put outside until he calms down. Woof-woof!
Luther
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