Three Little Issues
that define what is wrong with America
The big problem in America is not quite the debt problem and the entitlements problem. Although they certainly help. No. It’s regulations and NGO lawfare that’s killing us.
Electrical transformer cores. Salena Zito writes about a new regulation that is forcing manufacturers to use “amorphous metal” cores rather than “grain-oriented steel” cores in electrical transformers. Wat?
The Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and some others had sued the Department of Energy for not properly doing its customary six-year review of energy efficiency standards.
See, manufacturing the grain-oriented steel cores would result in more greenhouse gases, costing trillions of dollars according to plaintiffs.
Lifestyle effects of health care costs. Jeffrey A. Tucker writes that insurance companies are not allowed to base health-insurance premiums on lifestyle choices like smoking and obesity. Why? Obamacare. It has eliminated “discrimination based on pre-existing conditions”, so your health insurer can’t charge you for your dangerous lifestyle.
Record high home prices. That was in December, according to Case-Shiller. Gubmint did it, with 30-year fixed mortgages and low down payments. Oh and endless inflation. Homes have never been so unaffordable.
Yes, I know that right now the big problem is corrupt DAs and judges going after Donald Trump just like Peruvian dictator Óscar Benavides said:
For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.
Friends? Enemies? Hey Óscar! Were you a student of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt and his friend / enemy distinction back in the day?
But the same thing applies to the three issues relating to greenhouse gases and health insurance and home prices. Greenhouse gases? The enemy of the climate. Lower health insurance for fatties and addicts? Helping our friends that are discriminated against by high insurance for unhealthy lifestyles. Government agencies like Fannie Mae to lower mortgage costs? What’s not to like?
But honestly, I don’t know where we start. Because if you are an ordinary educated class person, you are probably dedicated to the elimination of greenhouse gases, whatever the cost, and you are outraged that oppressed peoples are forced to pay more for health care. And doesn’t it just make sense to have a government agency lowering mortgage rates for consumers?
See, the reason for Donald Trump and populist nationalism here and in Europe is that, for the ordinary middle class westerner, something is rotten in the state of Denmark. But what? Really, nobody knows, except you and me.
What you and I know is that it all comes down to the educated class and its endless faith in government handouts and government regulation of the marketplace an the jobs an influence for educated-class activists and politicians and bureaucrats.
And everyone is in favor of a program that puts money in their pocket.
Maybe the ruling class of the Next Regime will be different. But I’m not holding my breath.