Government intervention

It remains a common belief among a certain number of people, especially people who managed to make a good amount of money, that Government is generally inefficient and ineffective and that anytime Government gets involved in an enterprise it is bound to make it worse.

There are examples, such as the state controlled economies of the Soviet Block that seem to support this, but like many people, they only use arguments that support their particular position.

The simple fact is that a fair number of these people like the idea that they can basically use their knowledge of the financial markets to make money even when this at times is at the cost of the average American citizen.

It wasn't the Government that ran the banks and the auto companies into the situation they now find themselves in. Further, there are any number of Government enterprises, i.e. the US Military, that do just fine.

In fact, if you look at what I would argue are the worst trends of the last 50 years in America, they were almost universally caused by a lack of Government involvement. Every one of our investment bubbles, the increased disparity in wealth, the exporting of jobs overseas, the elimination of traditional pensions, the increase in health costs, the tremendous waste of energy and rampant consumerism that has led to a society that is deeply in debt and in general overweight were all caused by private industry.

The people who argue Government is the problem will try to say that it was underlying Government policies that caused private enterprise to act this way, but this argument is contradicted by the very clear and very real removal of Government involvement in many of these areas.

Interestingly, when some of the worst offenders found themselves near bankruptcy because they as private industry, failed to act prudently and lived in a greed culture that paid ridiculous salaries and bonuses for what in many cases were fictional profits, they came to the Government hat in hand. Now, after accepting enough support to survive, the idea that the American Public, as represented by the Government may have an interest in how they do things is repugnant.

I get a kick out of the argument that if there were to be some restriction on the amounts paid to some of these individuals they would leave and pursue other interests. First, it is unlikely that there are too many other opportunities that would pay these types of salaries to what in many cases are good old boys. What is this unique talent that they bring to the table that couldn't be easily replaced? Is it the ability to manipulate financial instruments so that they can inflate values and make it seem that there are large profits when in reality it is a house of cards? Do we want to reward that skill? If we increase visibility and accountability, will the skill even be worth anything?

I say that if they want to go, good riddance, they need a wake up call anyways.