Giving Stuff Away For Free Creates Unmovable Voting Blocs
Even "Educated And Smart" People Love the Grift
A friend of mine gave me a book, “Freedom From Fear”. It’s about the FDR Presidency. I took a lot of things from the book but one part of FDR’s character that came out is he was no “angel”. He was a hardcore political animal. You can see the author discuss his book here.
For example at the end of Hoover’s term, Hoover wanted to try and institute all kinds of policies to try and stem the Great Depression. Instead of putting them in place, FDR instructed Democrats to hold off until he got in office and then he instituted several of the same exact policies.
The people that surrounded FDR were pretty smug. They thought they were more intelligent and knew better than the rest of society and also thought their decisions would be better for people than people choosing for themselves. One FDR person traveled around the US documenting the state of living for a lot of rural people and found it disgusting. Somehow, only government could change that.
FDR campaigned on “The New Deal”. The New Deal was really more government control.
Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal wrung from the trauma of the 1930s a lasting legacy of economic and social reform, including the Social Security Act, new banking and financial laws, regulatory legislation, and new opportunities for organized labor.
While it seemed like a great idea at the time since people were hurting so badly, it turned out to be a wrecking ball to society. The New Deal begat thousands of government programs and subsidies.
The dirty secret is that the New Deal wasn’t designed to actually help people. It was designed to buy votes and create long-lasting voter blocs that would ensure Democratic Party power.
For example, farmers were a pretty independent lot. FDR knew he couldn’t persuade them so he bought them off with subsidies and crop controls.
FDR redefined what America was about. It used to be about personal responsibility. His “four freedoms” speech is heralded by many but I think it’s one of the most toxic political speeches in American history. If you don’t know the four freedoms are:
the freedom of speech and expression
the freedom of worship
the freedom from want
and the freedom from fear
Think about the last one in terms of Covid Policy. Think about the third one in terms of how the government gives away money to special interests. Think about how the government closed the churches during Covid and how the government currently discriminates against religion. Finally, in the wake of the firing of Tucker Carlson and the opening of the Twitter Files, think about how the government regulates freedom of speech and expression today and how it encourages that discrimination and suppression today.
Fast forward to today.
Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is trying to pass a budget. He’s in a debt ceiling fight. Everyone knows that America is running up too much debt and the only way to cure the problem is to cut spending or have rampant and record GDP growth that can pay for the debt. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have paid lip service to cutting the deficit but no one has done it, ever. Biden has vowed to veto any budget he puts forward, but it is still his job to put one forward.
In the always tricky negotiations about a budget, the new roadblock is Midwest Republicans, members of McCarthy’s own party. They want their ethanol and biodiesel money and they want it now.
We know that ethanol and biodiesel do virtually nothing to stop global warming. They are mere circus acts when it comes to fuel. Something that’s neat but not functional. “Oh, corn can power machines. How about that?” Of course, it goes without saying that fossil fuels power those same machines more efficiently.
Just because it looks cool at the Iowa State Fair doesn’t mean it’s good for society.
But, in defense of legislators blocking the path forward, those subsidies have been around for a long time now. Instituted by the radical green environmental lobby in the wake of subsidies, huge businesses have formed around them. You can empathize with a legislator that has to go back to their district and say, “We had to get rid of the subsidies and make your business accountable to market forces for the good of the country, and the environment.”
No matter the political party, a legislator’s first priority is to get re-elected, not do things for the good of the country.
However, it’s not just ethanol. Name an industry that doesn’t have a subsidy. When Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, they couldn’t even get rid of the Ex-Im Bank which is a huge subsidy to big US corporations.
Now, try making a program like crop price support, or social security, rational and economically efficient. You can’t.
You wonder why Democrats of today are fighting to keep control over urban areas that are obviously in decay. Many of them know it is their policies that are causing decay but they won’t change. It’s because they want power and the money that comes from having power. It’s not just about money for themselves, it’s also because they get to distribute the money, often to their friends.
My wife told me a great story about getting a CTA pass in Chicago. She was at the CTA office on Lake Street in Chicago waiting her turn. A person in front of her was given a “free” CTA pass because of some special circumstance. That’s a subsidy if you didn’t recognize it immediately. A person leaped off their seat and became extremely agitated and jumped in front of my wife in line loudly complaining that he wanted to ride for free too. The agent behind the counter patiently looked at his pass and said, “You are already riding for free.”
We have way too many free riders on economic policy in the US and many of them don’t even realize they are riding for free. When confronted with that fact, they get violent. No amount of reason, even if based on logical or scientific fact, can change their minds.
The stark reality is that eventually, the US will default on its debt if it keeps the current pace. It might not happen in the near term. But, it’s a mathematical certainty.
Thanks, FDR.
The challenge with using the word "strategic" is that nobody really understands it.
Strategy is the view from 30,000' in business and the view from 100,000' in government.
Tactics is the view from 10,000' and it tells sub-entities what to do with their own sovereign powers.
Objectives is the boots on the ground and it informs us what we are going to do today, this week, and month.
The Nation should act/plan strategically.
The States should act/plan tactically.
The counties, cities should execute objectives driven by tactics in support of the strategy.
We have virtually no strategic forward thinking going on at the National level.
What we do have is a series of avoidable crisis's continually.
Let me give you two examples: the world is at war and our Army cannot recruit sufficient raw talent to keep its manpower at 450K soldiers. Frame of reference, the US military was more than 13MM in WWII and was 3-4MM during Vietnam. We had 600K American soldiers in Europe during the Cold War.
A strategic thinker would be planning on an Army that will have to be 2MM men given the reality of future demands. Just planning, not yet doing. Planning.
In WWII, 95% of draftees passed their induction physical.
In Vietnam, 65%, and there was a wholesale effort to not pass it -- talking to you, Donald Trump, Joe Biden -- you pussies.
Now? 15% of American boys are physically able to serve. Pathetic.
So, the strategy to recruit needs to start in the high schools -- physical ed to build the basic strength to be a soldier.
We cannot keep up with the demonstrated level of 155mm artillery ammunition more than a year after the Russians invaded. The Ukrainians are firing about a fifth of what the Russians fire. [I think the Russians are scouring the world for ammo and trying to make it as fast as they can. They us 152mm whilst the west uses 155mm.]
Who is the best strategic thinker in American leadership or politics right now?
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
Another good book on the FDR fiascos is the Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes.
You wrote: "ethanol and biodiesel do virtually nothing to stop global warming." But the reality is that nothing we silly humans do does anything to stop global warming. The climate will change, regardless of what we do. It has been doing that forever.