A friend of mine turned me onto a very interesting article written by economics professor Walter E. Williams at George Mason University about the cause of our housing crisis – found here.
There are a few possible explanations here. Some of them are very cynical, too.
- Maybe the members of Congress are just dumb. The fact itself that they ran for office makes you wonder. However, these people are extremely talented.
- They think are really trying to make the right decision. I think you have to put some faith in this one. Otherwise, we are in real trouble.
- They are pandering to an increasing uninformed public. Bingo! The most likely answer- especially at this stage of the election cycle.
Let me expand on number 3. Though there is ever more access to information, people are more drawn to the latest on their favorite movie star, sports team (go Lakers!), video game, or social network. Our society cares about the people in Yangon for a week, then what Rangoon has to do with it while they debate who will win the American Idol finale.
Since politicians (and especially presidential hopefuls) know that the average voter will not think through these issues, they grab a hot item and do something that will get them headlines and attention, and hopefully some votes. Think gas-tax holidays or windfall taxes on oil companies. On the surface it might seem like a great idea to take some of these profits and redirect them to… But this would only hurt the economy – causing new problems while not necessarily remedying the intended ones.
Consider the idea of making ethanol from corn (which I don’t believe was an idea born in the halls of Congress or the White House, but has certainly been furthered by their policies). As you remove corn from the food supply to make ethanol, the price of corn goes up. So what are farmers (or any business person) going to do? Plant more corn and less other crops. The corn goes to ethanol production, and the corn being removed from the food market is not replaced by other crops. So, that means there is less food available because the amount of land for growing food is not increasing. That equates to higher food prices. Now, while that is certainly painful to us Americans, for the extraordinarily impoverished throughout the world, this can be a real crisis leading to “food riots that have broken out in Egypt, Haiti, Yemen, Bangladesh and other nations” as stated by Mr. Williams.
How do you suppose this makes the US look internationally? One could say that this energy policy allows extreme groups to foster hatred toward us among the most deprived. It gives foreign oppressive governments (think Burma, Sudan, North Korea, the Middle East) more power over their masses.
Now these politicians understand these things. This is not advanced-level economics. So they are each pushing for that thing that will win them popular support. However, this Ponce de Leon-like quest for historical significance (first black person, first woman and former first lady, former POW in the White House) is being sought by pushing very short-term gains which will only hurt us in the long run.
To again quote Mr. Williams, “Congress’ proposed “solutions” to the energy and food mess they’ve created include a windfall profits tax on oil companies, a gasoline tax holiday for the summer, increases in the food stamp program and foreign food aid. These measures will not solve the problem but will create new problems.”
Let us be citizens who support the US by seeking real understanding to our problems. When we give in to the pandering of politicians, we are encouraging them to provide us with fake solutions. By demanding real solutions from our elected officials, we make our country – and world – more secure.
