Cafe Hayek - Latest Comments in The Woman and Man of System

Re: The Woman and Man of System

JamesG — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:21:46 -0000

Well said Phil. the only person in this thread with any common sense...

"Lifted billions out of poverty..in the last 200 years"...?

...world population in 1800 was 1 billion, it is now 6 billion, most of whom live below the poverty line.

"the government destroyed the auto industry" ?

...People bought foreign cars so either the wonderful free-choosing consumer destroyed the auto industry or it sold crap cars.

"the use of the financial crisis and recession for the advancement of their own social engineering agenda" ?

...They have been landed with the task of finding work for millions..They didn't ask for it..

"Mises always talked about the concept of the "sovereign consumer" and his role in the free-market to decide what goods ought to be produced by buying or abstaining."

...Does that include hard drugs? Or buying toxic debt, or being stung by Madoffs? Hmm do you suppose there is a need for regulation?

You guys might consider that substituting one stupidity for another is no solution at all.As Phil says it is a false dichotomy we need free enterprise but it needs guidance and regulation.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Phil — Sun, 03 May 2009 11:19:07 -0000

The thing is, free enterprise did not get us where we are now. The exact sort of centralized decision making that is being criticized is what got us here. If we're going to look to Orwell for lessons let's understand that exchanging big government for big business is no change at all. Free markets work very well, but markets with dominant players aren't free. Markets also can't factor out the uniform biases of the people who participate in them. The best thing for government to do is to rig the markets so that nobody is allowed to become dominant ("too big to fail" is too big by almost an order of magnitude), and so that issues that each of us would rather ignore as individuals (like pollution) are accounted for.

Ultimately the choice between free markets and socialism is a false dichotomy. What's needed is a system that prevents the decoupling of power from responsibility, or knowledge from decision making. No single set of tools is right for every situation, so it's not a matter of picking the right ideology, it's a matter of avoiding ideology in order to make the right choice.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

thatguyky — Sat, 02 May 2009 06:05:38 -0000

At the 2:10 mark of the interview Jackson makes another astounding comment regarding the reporters question about the possible damaging effects of carbon dioxide regulations on businesses, schools, malls, hospitals, etc. Jackson replies that those institutions would be rightly angry if they suddenly "found themselves operating under some onerous regulation." Her response: "So what that means is we should have a transition." I guess that will give everyone time to get used to the onerous regulations.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

GG — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:52:25 -0000

Obama said a few times that auto companies should be making different cars than they were making now. I am sure he did not mean cars that people would want to have.

He would sell these cars at a discunt (Volt) covered by a huge transfer of tax money from the group that would not buy them. At some point the government would tell automakers how many of these cars they should make. They have been trying to do that for quite some time.

I lived in such reality for 30 years. Govenment could not figure out how many rolls and what kind of toilet paper the nation should produce and use. There never was enough. There was an abandunce of white vineger (go figure). One would think that it would be much easier to distribute coupons for toilet paper or shoes or sugar or meat and count how many coupons were issued and then produce as calculated. It did not work either.

Not much diffference here: once the govenment decided to produce ethanol, there wasn't enough than it is too much. Once the government decided to build more homes there were too many. Once the govenment decides how may wind turbines are needed there will be too many, how much food to produce by subsidizing agriculture, there is too much. Funny thing is that nowhere in the world, where the healthcare is nationalized there is enough of it or the right quality.

Government enterprise at its best.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Floccina — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:55:48 -0000

she said:

"the free enterprise system has us where we are right this second"

And I wish that she would reflect on that for a while and on the fact that lack of a free enterprise system is what got Cuba and North Korea where they are today. We might be in a ditch at the moment but even in this ditch we are way better off than Cuba and North Korea and enterprise system got us here.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

GRF — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:06:13 -0000

I am amazed that someone from the press, especially NPR, would dare ask that follow-up question. This reporter may never get invited to a Georgetown cocktail party ever again!

Re: The Woman and Man of System

rmark — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:23:07 -0000

'Lada' no, 'Trabant' yes

http://www.time.com/time/sp...

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Ike Pigott — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:08:13 -0000

@joshzele --

For the benefit of the rest of the us, can you please share the miraculous story of how you regained control of the vehicle?

Do you know how long you fought off the seizures?

Praise the Lord you are okay, and have lived to share your near-death experience.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

joshzele — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:54:06 -0000

Yes, I was in the car when I heard this discussion. I asked the same questions as the reporter aloud in the car. Ms. Jackson's response could do nothing but stammer and blame the "old ways".

Good stuff. I love when people's true beliefs are exposed from behind the typical boring political rhetoric.

A tip of the hat to the reporter for asking the question.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

George Peacock — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:02:16 -0000

Earlier in the interview when complaining about the critics and lobbyists with their "doomsday scenarios" regarding the costs to business of reducing greenhouse gases, Ms. Jackson says that "they [the cristics]overlook the important, sort of, missing ingredient which is American ingenuity and American innovation." Orwell's Napolean come full circle. Perhaps it's not swine flu but swine rule we should fear.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Ward — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:01:14 -0000

How ironic, and disgusting, it is that those who cursed the Bush administration for using 9/11 as a pretext for changing foreign policy, invading Iraq and creating new bureaucracy are now entirely sanguine about the use of the financial crisis and recession for the advancement of their own social engineering agenda. SSDD.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Jacob Oost — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:22:15 -0000

"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Juan C. de Cardenas — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:07:53 -0000

When I was in Cuba, where I was raised under the Castro regime I met several people who went to Cuba fleeing the Nazis and the Communist and one family who fled China after the Communist takeover only to found themselves under communist rule a mere ten years later. After listening to Madam Commissar of the EPA I have to wonder if that will be also my fate.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Ronald Hayden — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:11:12 -0000

Honestly, when I would find myself thinking during the campaign that Obama would take us toward 70s British-style socialism, I would feel guilty for overdoing it and playing the partisan game.

It's gone so much further than I feared.

Though I was wrong in that he seems more intent on Japanese-style coopetition wherein the wise hand of government tells businesses who to partner with and what to create.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

CRC — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:50:47 -0000

Hmmm...what was the last major government that decided to do that?

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Don — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:37:30 -0000

One word: Lada

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Chris O'Leary — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:47:03 -0000

Evidently, free enterprise is NOT about what people want, it's about what they SHOULD want (as determined by the government).

Are these people even familiar with Japan's fifth generation computing initiative, which was industrial policy at its finest (and an utter failure)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

I assume not.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

MWG — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:14:07 -0000

Government thinking at its finest... Where's muirdog???

Re: The Woman and Man of System

speedmaster — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:13:47 -0000

Wow, the fact that an adult thinks that way scares the living heck out of me.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

David — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:12:46 -0000

That is simply disgusting.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Sam Grove — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:54:45 -0000

They are making it up as they go along.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Kevin — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:21:24 -0000

Sorry to double post, but was Jackson telling the truth when she said that Obama has actually made this comment himself? I don't doubt that he thinks it, but does anyone know if he really said it?

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Kevin — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:19:17 -0000

Awesome. H Jenkins has a great piece in the WSJ today on the state and history of free enterprise in the US auto industry.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Lee Kelly — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:51:23 -0000

ddbb,

Everyone's ignorance is unlimited, but some people's ignorance is more unlimited than others.

Re: The Woman and Man of System

Dr. T — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:49:14 -0000

Obama doesn't want anyone in the executive branch to outshine him, so his top level picks are more ignorant about economics than he is.