Parallels between Obama’s green economy plans and, well, other governments’ economic changes
Bookworm on Jul 08 2010 at 1:42 pm | Filed under: Economics, Government
Obama plans to use brute force legislation to turn America into a green economy. To do this, he is going to use the government’s police and economic power to break the backs of the oil and coal industries. It occurred to me that (at least) three other governments have used brute force to change their country’s economies.
Stalin decided to break the backs of the farmers, and to industrialize the Soviet economy. Estimates are that 35 million died. Mao decided to break the backs of the farmers, and simply reallocate resources “equally.” Estimates are that 50 to 100 million died. Mugabe decided to reallocate Zimbabwe’s farm wealth from whites to blacks. Overnight, Zimbabwe went from being Africa’s bread basket to being just another African basket case, with people starving in the streets. (I don’t know the mortality rates arising from Mugabe’s policies. Do any of you?)
Economic changes work wonderfully when driven by market forces. When driven by government ideologies, the results, so far as I can tell, are invariably death, despair and poverty.
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7 Responses to “Parallels between Obama’s green economy plans and, well, other governments’ economic changes”
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“Death, Despair and Poverty”!
Sounds like Liberal Utopia to me.
The amount of ignorance about energy which is out there is scary. Most people seem to think that if they turn off a light bulb they are saving imported oil…not understanding that in reality, very little U.S. electricity is generated from oil. I have talked with many intelligent people who don’t understand that there is no practical/economical way to *store* large amounts of electricity. (in most cases: pumped hydro being an exception where terrain and environmentalists permit.) And I almost never encounter a story on energy written by someone who grasps the difference between a kilowatt and a kilowatt-hour, even in the business media.
Part of the huge expansion in education funding was premised on the theory that we are now a “technological society” in which broad-based knowledge of science is increasingly important. Intentionally or not, this funding justification has turned out to be a massive fraud, and many if not most people now graduate from high school and college without any material understanding of science and technology whatsoever.
Green economy? As green as Greenland I bet Obama’s arse kicker.
Oh my, they’re kvetching in Aspen ..
“The curse of long term unemployment is that if you pay people to do nothing, they’ll find themselves doing nothing for very long periods of time,” Ferguson said. “Long-term unemployment is at an all-time high in the United States, and it is a direct consequence of a misconceived public policy.”
Ferguson was joined in his harsh attack by billionaire real estate mogul and New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman. Both lambasted Obama’s trillion-dollar deficit spending program—in the name of economic stimulus to cushion the impact of the 2008 financial meltdown—as fiscally ruinous, potentially turning America into a second-rate power.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-07/aspen-ideas-festival-obama-loses-support-of-nations-elite/full/
Well, many people have said all along (and I believe them), that the green movement was always about destroying industry in this country. Destroying the market and people’s ability to work for and grow their own comfort level for their families. They don’t want people to be able to afford bigger houses and use more a/c and drive bigger cars…because then they have more babies and as any greenie will tell you, this is a wildly irresponsible use of our environment and they intend to put a stop to it.
So when pols start talking about “green jobs” and a green economy…they know there is no such thing. It is quite literally a trick to get regular people on board w/ destroying the current economy and energy resources that we already have in hopes for something better. That something better will never materialize. Some leftists don’t know that and they really do believe this non-sense…but there are plenty who know exactly what will happen when they destroy our current oil-based economy. The latter group is pretty scary.
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