I've been reading the news about soon-to-be-ex-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer with mixed feelings. Yes, mixed. On the one hand, there is something satisfying in seeing an insufferably self-righteous, politically ambitious, ham-handed, and ethically challenged former prosecutor lose his grip on power because he did what he used to prosecute other people for doing. On the other hand, he was caught in a victimless crime because the ludicrously named Patriot Act requires banks to inform the IRS when their depositors engage in "suspicious," that is, unusual, financial activity. Big Brother lives.The rest of this week's TGF, "Big Brother Really Is Watching," is at the Foundation for Economic Education website.
When a private company screws up, there is no shortage of people demanding more government intrusion in the marketplace. But when the government screws up, they don’t call for less government. They call for more.My latest op-ed, "The Government's Chickens Are Back," is at The Future of Freedom Foundation website.The economy is slowing down, and the government is at fault. But, if anything, the policymakers and pundits want the government to do more of what got us into trouble in the first place. If a lot of poison is bad, a lot more is somehow good. That’s the logic of statism.
2 comments:
I often wonder about the name "Patriot Act". What is so patriot about it? All the current catchy political terms, such as defending freedom, conservative family values, are sharing the same irony.
Well, better late than never anonymous. Orwellian double-speak is as old as the first attempt by one human to control another.
Read 1984 by George Orwell. You'll be sorry you did.
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