Has a larger collection of negative, arrogant and out-of-touch politicians ever been in charge of an asset as dear as this country and its citizens?
We are not talking “glass half empty” pessimism. Rather, our elected representatives don’t even trust us to know how to drink from the damn glass.
The energy shortage is a prime example of bureaucrats trying to lead at a macro level while blind to the complexities at the micro level.
Like earlier prophets of doom, they fail to appreciate capitalism’s ability to adjust and innovate. In 1798, British economist Thomas Malthus predicted that the imbalance between population growth and food production would cause the world to starve to death. Doomsayers called it Malthus’ “Iron Law.” It was neither iron nor law.
Malthus fell into the old trap of underestimating everyone’s intelligence but his own. He was incapable of imagining combines, tractors, insecticides and fertilizers.
Today, the Luddites of both parties in Washington are proposing regulations that cling to the belief that they can define absolutes, even in a world of rapidly changing technologies. It’s not the first time.
Some examples:
