Products Of A Mixed-Economy
This story highlights the type of mind that result from and thrive in an economy rife with Government meddling - Faux Capitalists.
[Ford CEO Alan Mulally] was a guest recently at this newspaper’s ECO:nomics conference in Santa Barbara, where he outlined his efforts to revamp the struggling car maker. He said one problem is that America didn’t have an “integrated energy policy.” On the one hand, the government “regulated” smaller cars by “mandating average fuel mileage improvements,” but on the other hand “with low fuel prices and low interest rates over the years, the U.S. consumers have chosen generally larger vehicles.”
Mr. Mulally offered his own solution to the mismatch, artfully explaining that we needed to “involve the consumer in our energy policy.” In case anyone missed his point, Michael Jackson, CEO of AutoNation, the largest auto dealer in the country, was more explicit: “Mr. Mulally said it very elegantly last night and I will say it more straightforward. We need more expensive gasoline.”
In other words, they want to leverage illegitimate government force to compensate for the mediocrity (lack of market share) that results from previous illegitimate government force. Yet another example of the recursive nature of statist regulation, i.e., controls breeding controls.
So: The U.S. government mandates fuel-economy standards that force Detroit to make cars Americans don’t want to drive. When Detroit loses money on those cars, Washington throws taxpayer dollars at its mistake, and the car makers demand a tax increase that would prod Americans to buy the unpopular cars that Washington mandates. As for what the American consumer or taxpayer wants — or can afford in today’s economy — who cares? Welcome to government-run energy policy.
I would correct the last sentence… welcome to government run anything. The mindset of these mixed-economy barons inevitably serves to further blur the line between economic and political power that so many fail to see. When most American’s hear successful supposed Capitalists calling for such measures it only reinforces their confusion of the proper role of Government in a free nation’s economy.
