(I’ve been out a bit this week. Hopefully I’ll be back in action by the end of next week: prayers are solicited for my performance on my upcoming exam.)
From the ever-intriguing John Stossel comes this gem:
Obama promises: “We will change the world … There is nothing we can’t do, nothing we can’t accomplish if we are unified.”
Who is this “we” politicians always cite?
We can change the world for the better if “we” means hundreds of millions of free people pursuing their interests, inventing, building, parenting, helping.
But the politicians’ “we” is different. It means government. “We” will take your money by force and order you about. A democracy can become the tyranny of the majority. That’s no way to create prosperity.
Obama is an extraordinarily talented man. But there is one thing he can’t successfully do: ignore the laws of economics. No one can do that. That’s why we call them “laws.”
Just to give you an idea of where Stossel’s coming from, in this same article he goes on to reference the words of von Mises and Hayek. Give it a read, and click all the embedded links.
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6 responses so far ↓
1 Angi // Nov 15, 2008 at 1:32 am
Prayers are in progress
2 Saige // Nov 15, 2008 at 10:28 am
Sometimes I wonder how he gets away with some of the things he says. Anyone else would be crucified. Or, maybe he’s like O’Brien in 1984…
Saige´s last blog post..and the winner is…
3 Leah // Nov 15, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I love John Stossel. I was glad to see a little FDR-bashing in it–happens too rarely. I need to read The Road to Serfdom!
Leah´s last blog post..So much for using big words…
4 AMW // Nov 17, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Saige,
Are you talking about Stossel or Obama?
5 Saige // Nov 18, 2008 at 9:28 am
Stossel. I don’ t think that he is, but sometimes I do wonder how and why he’s on our (the conservative viewers) side about so many things. He’s like the only one. When I watch him I can’t help but think that he must have a dark side or something.
Saige´s last blog post..and the winner is…
6 AMW // Nov 18, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Well, Stossel would object to being placed on the conservative side, since he considers himself a libertarian. But he used to be a typical progressive liberal journalist. He rode to fame on his consumer reporting, then changed his mind as he saw government intervention rarely helping and often exacerbating the situtations he was reporting on.
By the time he became a libertarian, he was already successful, and was able to convince his network to let him do a few specials with a pro-market angle. He thought they would be one-offs, but they turned out to be real popular, so he’s been able to maintain a platform.
It’s all in his autobiography. A pretty good read, you might want to pick up a copy.
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