Posted on 03/16/2012 4:59:46 AM PDT by SJackson
In an interview with WFTV, President Obama suddenly discovered what it is that has troubled Americans about Marxism for well over a century. The crucial exchange occurred when Obama was asked about gas prices. “Well, as long as gas prices are going up, people are going to feel like I’m not doing enough, and I understand that,” Obama observed. “Ultimately, though, there’s no silver bullet.”
Then came the critical question. “Your opponents say they can get gas to the $2.50 range,” said the interviewer. “What do you think Americans should be OK with?” Obama, avoiding the question, shrugged, “First of all, nobody believes that. They know that’s just politics. Anybody who says we can get gas down to two bucks a gallon just isn’t telling the truth.”
But President Obama didn’t answer the question.
The real question is why he couldn’t. After all, this is a president who has stated over and over that prices and wages should be set on the basis of fairness. He tried to claw back Wall Street bonuses because investment bankers were making more than they “deserved” to make; he says the rich should pay their “fair share.”
The problem, of course, is that nobody knows what is fair—for wages, bonuses, or gas prices. Is it really fair for some people to pay a far lower percentage of their income to the federal government than others? Is it fair that some people buy ground chuck and others New York strip?
That he struggled to say how much Americans should have to pay for gas should not have surprised the president. Economists have struggled for centuries to determine what people deserve to pay for precious commodities. . Invariably, they insist on more control of the economy, stating that the blind hand of the market simply cannot produce a fair and just system. That’s why Thomas Edison wrote, “What is wanted is some person familiar with the selling and buying, the technical as well as the financial end of all industries, to devise some generic scheme that business can work on.”
Top-down technocrats fail to understand how an undirected system can work so well. That’s because they don’t understand freedom. How can hundreds of millions of people, all pursuing their self-interest, create more wealth than hundreds of millions of people all directed toward a single end? How can fairness by achieved by seeming randomness rather than by hierarchical control of the right-minded?
The answer is deceptively simple: all those people pursuing self interest are pursuing the same end. That end is a better standard of living. If you work hard and bargain for the lowest price, you will enjoy a better standard of living. If everyone around you does it, they will too. If, however, you have a massive government standing over you, telling you who should win and who should lose, the system of incentives stops working. You no longer have to work hard to make a living if the government provides you one by taking from a third party and giving you a handout; you no longer have to bargain for lower prices if the government sets a ceiling or a floor on prices. Now, instead of everyone working for the same personal goal, everyone relies on the government to tell them what is fair. And when government decides what is fair, nothing ever is.
Now, this isn’t to say that Obama will recognize the folly of his Marxist philosophy. He won’t. He’ll ignore the internal contradiction here. He’ll maintain that while nobody can decide the fair price of gas at the pump, he can certainly decide the fair profit margin for gas companies. He’ll determine that certain executives take less pay for the good of the whole, while determining that certain teachers, police officers, firefighters, and union members make more money and are therefore able to buy more gasoline at whatever the pump price.
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Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com
URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/03/16/obama-discovers-problem-with-marxism/
Bump
LOL. "Take your number in the 'Marxism is a failure' cue, comrade! "
Good post.
To be clear, his “opponents” saying gasoline prices can fall to $2.50 per gallon is actually one man...Newt.
With the right policies, of course, which Newt lays out to a fare thee well.
Oh what I would give to have Newt debate Obama’s absurd and America killing ideology vs. Newt’s American Energy policies, one on one, with America watching.
I know that isn’t what you posted about, but it needs to be pointed out.
“From each according to his abilities.....to each according to his needs.....and we’ll decide what your abilities and needs are.” Old Karl always missed that last part.
Any top down command and control system (be it military or economic) is going to suffer due to information. Even if (hypothetically) you have the brightest possible people at the top making decisions, the problem is twofold:
1. Gathering, analyzing, and presenting the data in a form those people need to make decisions.
2. The time it takes to do so.
You will never be able to do #1 efficiently, even with a Chinese army of analysts. Also, #2 will be significant. The resulting time lag will create inefficienies in itself. In many cases, the state of the system will have changed before you make a decision.
And, of course, the hypothetical is not the actual. The people making the decisions will never be able to consistently make the “best” decisions even if given perfect information. This is true regardless of how many degrees they have from the top universities.
In a highly distributed system, you will have many people failing, but a few getting it right and succeeding wildly. That is is essence of Capitalism (and Blitzkreig).
Now at this late date, he is learning that there is no silver bullet (i.e. that he doesn't know the answer to any of these complicated questions).
Shapiro is right. Obama simply doesn't understand freedom. He cannot comprehend that freedom itself is the answer to the complicated question.
He doesn't trust the wisdom of the masses. If he did, he would learn that he isn't so smart...and he certainly isn't wise.
Bump
No one else in the Conservative field is better qualified or MORE INCLINED to a NO HOLDS BARRED approach in this campaign. And THAT is what is needed... it is a tactic long-overdue in countering the unprincipled and increasingly Anti-American politics of Liberals.
Thanks, next time an o-hole Hussein Head tells me how great their god is, I will say, “No one believes that. Everyone knows that’s just politics.”
ya think? Ever notice Marxists countries haven’t any credit cards?
Obama skirts being pinned down:
Fox News Reporter Ed Henry: “Your critics will say on Capitol Hill that you want gas prices to go higher, because you have said before that will wean the American people off fossil fuels onto renewable fuels. How do you respond to that?”
Obama: “Ed, just from a political perspective, do you think the President of the United States, going into reelection, wants gas prices to go up even higher?” he said. Turning to the room at large, he added, “Is there anybody here who thinks that makes a lot of sense?”
So now he is trying fascism?
Wel, it depends on how you look at it. It is guranteed that they will make the best possible decisions for themselves
If a Republican had said that, he would have been laughed at and called delusional.
With regard to the Chevy Volt, I'd like to see them all brought into a large parking lot, filled with coal and set on fire.
Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.
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