Video clip of the day

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Nice and quick little 5 minute interview with John Stossel, now of Fox News, who spent 28 years at ABC and left because, in his words, it "sucked".

Stossel sits down with the Heritage Foundation's Rob Bluey and discusses his time there at ABC, the Buffet Rule and why statist policies make better copy and have such broader public appeal than conservative/libertarian ones.

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Our take: Statism is sexy because statism is easy. Caring for the sick, feeding the poor, educating our children, generating new technology, spurring job growth and fostering a robust economy is easy if it's someone else (i.e., the government) doing it. By contrast individual (i.e., your) initiative, effort and risk-taking is hard.

Besides, the government is, in itself, acting in it's own rational self-interest. Just like any other private enterprise, they are in the growth business but unfortunately, unlike a private enterprise, they are in the unique position whereby they will not be punished by the market for making promises they cannot keep with respect to say, eliminating poverty or stimulating the economy.

If Ford makes an Edsel, they are punished by poor sales and the ignomy of perhaps the worst American automobile of all-time. However, a politician enacting economic policies that have stalled prospects of a recession recovery and who has exhibited zero individual initiative in reforming a broken tax code and zero willingness to do anything about reigning in our national debt may very well get elected four more years to do god knows what.

The deck is very much stacked against the individual.


Next post: Quickies... tomorrow.

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