What Is The Federal Government Doing In…

Mileage mandates, bank ownership and controls over CEO’s salaries are all areas where the Federal Government is now instituting and proposing policy.  It is not hyperbole to wonder if we are headed for an economy of the former Soviet Union replete with central planning and  dictates by government decree.  Class warfare, populism and economic ignorance  are a dangerous mix; they play on our worst instincts and have enhanced/prolonged economic downturns.  When I visited the former Soviet Union twice in the nineties, I witnessed the vestiges of communism system as well as a burgeoning cleptocracy.  It was an education in how a system could destroy a peoples’ morale for generations, and then subsequently be replaced by corrupt capitalism (this not to suggest in any way the Soviet Union collapse was not a great moment 20th century history). When the government fell, it was replaced with a system where former government power players simply moved to a quasi-private enterprise system without the protections of the rule of law and property rights.  Of course, I am generalizing but here is my point: When the government steps into areas of private enterprise, and drowns out true competition with subsidies and regulation; its impact has long-term consequences. The protections of businesses, both big and small are stripped away through political favoritism.  Witness the current climate proposals, mandates and treaties; they are a Trojan horse of government regulation and subsidization.  Couple this with the rhetorical protectionism regarding the auto industry (Obama comments today) and you have killed a major element of our free enterprise system.  Class warfare is being used to justify proposals that would dictate to banks, which have received government funds, how much money they can pay their CEOs; how are you going to attract the best executives by diminishing their compensation?  The only thing I care about is that the government gets paid back with interest. This not some populist  game where politicians get to opine about the evil CEO’s who make too much money at the expense of the proletariat; this is about creating an environment for economic success.  For the record, the Main street guy is hoping his Wall Street suit is making sound decisions so his investments pay a decent return.  It is not Wall street vs. Main street; it is Wall Street and Main Street vs. preening Senators, who have sacrificed their basic economic knowledge on the alter of some Messianic idea that they are the arbiters of who should have what. The bottom line is: we have a rich (pun intended) history of free enterprise with the rule of law.  If Americans allow it to be replaced with central planning, subsidies, and nationalization all in the name of an ideology based on Chicken Little notions of Global Warming; this recession will not only be severe; it will be permanent.