But then I read this piece by the god father of modern day liberalism, George McGovern, and now I'm certain we don't have long to live.
Excerpt
Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior. Much paternalist scrutiny has recently centered on personal economics, including calls to regulate subprime mortgages.With liberalized credit rules, many people with limited income could access a mortgage and choose, for the first time, if they wanted to own a home. And most of those who chose to do so are hanging on to their mortgages. According to the national delinquency survey released yesterday, the vast majority of subprime, adjustable-rate mortgages are in good condition,their holders neither delinquent nor in default.
snip
Health-care paternalism creates another problem that's rarely mentioned: Many people can't afford the gold-plated health plans that are the only options available in their states.
Buying health insurance on the Internet and across state lines, where less expensive plans may be available, is prohibited by many state insurance commissions. Despite being able to buy car or home insurance with a mouse click, some state governments require their approved plans for purchase or none at all. It's as if states dictated that you had to buy a Mercedes or no car at all.
snipWith payday lending, people in need of immediate money can borrow against their future paychecks, allowing emergency purchases or bill payments they could not otherwise make. The service comes at the cost of a significant fee -- usually $15 for every $100 borrowed for two weeks. But the cost seems reasonable when all your other options, such as bounced checks or skipped credit-card payments, are obviously more expensive and play havoc with your credit rating.
Anguished at the fact that payday lending isn't perfect, some people would outlaw the service entirely, or cap fees at such low levels that no lender will provide the service. Anyone who's familiar with the law of unintended consequences should be able to guess what happens next.
Are you kidding me? This from a liberal.
Oh man, I voted for The Billary this week. Now all the domino's are starting to fall; 3000 inches of snow; liberals making sense. You should be afraid, be very afraid.
3 comments:
I couldn't believe it either when I read this piece and found out it was George McGovern who wrote it. I did take axception on his first point...
"Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior."
To be truthful, it would have been more accurate, instead of the phrase "the right and the left", to have used "the left, including some who claim to be on the right". Of couse to make his swipe at the left palatable to his followers, he needed to make the right take the punch too.
However, it is one of the defining principles of conservatism (and, by proxy, of of the Right) to minimize regulation on individuals, even when that regulation is theoretically there to "save people from themselves", knowing that this Law of Unintended Consequences usually will play out.
If you are in favor of said regulation you are essentiually taking a position that is left of conservative. If you claim that you are in favor of regulation then a claim that this is a conservative one is simply that---a claim, and a false one.
I whole heartedly agree. But I've been surprised at the number of sensible conservatives that want to regulate pay day lending businesses, interfere with the sub prime mortgage mess, etc.
It gets back to my belief once you think it's OK to take from one person to give to another, for any reason, you are a socialist, period.
But I believe that those are cases where conservatives are advocating unconservative policies. So we agree and I'm probably just splitting hairs.
I think my point is that McGovern seemed to have just discovered socialism's gaping flaws after 40 years. And now that he has found religion he's lecturing "the right and the left" on his discovery. However, the conservative philosophy has resisted socialized control of the private sector (for the very reasons McGovern states) long before McGovern was born.
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