House of Eratosthenes

Greece is the locus classicus. Why are the Greeks protesting? Against whom? They obtained long ago the promised bloated sector and high taxes that all schemed to avoid. Their alma mater EU is hardly a demonic capitalist-run plutocracy, but a kindred socialist state. Is Greece an oil producer, industrial powerhouse, high-tech innovator — anything that might explain the sort of upscale life, modern infrastructure, legions of Mercedeses, and plush second homes that one began to see in Greece after 1985?

In truth, socialist Greeks are furious that they have impoverished themselves and demand that private money and far harder-working Germans bail them out — but why so, when socialism should not need outside capitalist-generated dollars? Could not the Greeks, Soviet style, set up a Cuban collective, and adjust their lifestyles (there goes Kolonaki culture) to their means, living in an opportunity of result utopia with a huge public sector, more siestas, high but ignored taxes — with a collective good riddance to those awful intrusive German bankers?

Here at home, Obama got his ObamaCare. Why, then, did he grant hundreds of exemptions — many to northern California liberals? Should they instead not have lined up to volunteer to implement such a wonderful, long-needed entitlement?

He said energy would rightly sky-rocket, given his determination to curb fossil fuel production (cf. “bankrupt” coal companies). Why then is Obama concerned that gas hit $4; is not such a high price a welcomed retardant to burning hot fuels? The higher the gas prices, the more that subsidized wind and solar power, and electric cars are attractive, and thus the more we enjoy “sustainable” power. Right? Am I missing something about this desire within our grasp of “living within our means”?

Hat tip to Kate at Small Dead Animals.

That’s what makes the Left’s monomania so fascinating. They don’t want socialism, they don’t like socialism… yet they can’t stop implementing socialism every chance they get.

Well, that’s ideologues for you, I guess. I guess one of the reasons I’m a “conservative” is the little phrase “all things being equal.” When I advocate a conservative policy position, it’s always there in the background — all things being equal, we should… lower taxes, cut capital gains rates, cut entitlements, etc. But I, being an adult, know that these aren’t hard-and-fast prescriptions. There are times when it’s necessary to not lower taxes, cut capital gains rates, etc.

On the other hand, I have never yet heard a leftist say that his preferred policy will have unintended consequences, or really, any downside whatsoever. It simply must be implemented, ALL of it, right now, lest the world end.

Weird, no?
- Severian | 06/27/2011 @ 15:02
And it can’t be implemented in a test bed. It has to go straight from between the liberals’ ears, to the production floor.

Not as a part of a catalog of choices, since that would expose the idea to a possible rejection. There must be no getting away from it.

I have also noticed, more than once, that although several of their ideas separate from reality at several key stages of implementation, with varying intensities of “rippage” from the plane of reality…there is one instant in all their various schemes, where the divorce from reality is most assured. All their plans seem to be encumbered with this tragic instant of loss. And that is this: Some commodity will appreciate greatly in value, after it has become so vastly abundant that we are unable to escape it. Be it: Married homosexuals, hybrid cars, diversity classes, eco-cups, whatever. We are going to prize something highly, after our society has been reformed and we’re seeing a great deal of whatever it is. Once the landscape is littered with it, we will all place a premium value on it.

That, of course, is not how a market works.
- mkfreeberg | 06/27/2011 @ 15:08
The link reminded me I’d fallen behind on my VDH reading. He’s one of five or so columnists that I follow fairly closely (the others being Jonah Goldberg, Ann Coulter, Doug Giles, and Mike Adams).

I’d forgotten how depressing he is. His third-to-most recent column is a long screed on what a sewer California’s central valley has apparently become, with all sorts of folks walking right onto his farm near Fresno and apparently helping themselves to everything that isn’t nailed down – and a few things that are. In between these screeds, he complains bitterly about how the highways are riddled with CHP vehicles…apparently because enforcing the traffic laws “pays” for our state. In one breath he praises our state’s natural beauty; in the next, he complains about what an utter mess its government, culture, and infrastructure have become. The first question I always ask is, “And are we to believe that these problems of debt, joblessness, disenfranchisement, immorality, and cultural rot are better someplace else in the US? Last time I checked, half the states were struggling with mounting public debt.”

Hanson is a brilliant writer, but to listen to him, you’d think that all of Western Civilization is on the brink of utter collapse, with socialist states like California merely the vanguard, showing the most pronounced symptoms. Sure, we’ve got some serious problems, but I’m not sure what lamenting them is supposed to accomplish. He doesn’t offer any solutions or reasons for hope. According to him, there are too many people (voters, politicians, and judges alike) who are too invested in continuing the way things are, right up until the day it all comes crashing down.

There are no socialists, he tells us. You mean…the most avowed communists are the ones who want to live at the top as a handful of pampered elites, while the rest of us labor to support their lifestyles? Yeah, no kidding, Sherlock. Welcome to the human race.
- cylarz | 06/27/2011 @ 23:35
But that’s the thing about thinking like a grown-up; it isn’t always a cheery experience. If it was, maybe everyone would be doing it.

One thing I really like about Hanson: If there is a single central pillar around which all of this essays are constructed, it is “judgment time.” This message is one of, the experiment is concluded and here is the situation. But he never comes out an says that, or even imposes that upon the reader. If you happen to be antagonistic toward his viewpoint, you are free to think “no, it’s not judgment time yet, Obama still needs more time to clean up the wreckage from the previous eight years” and Hanson writes nothing to directly contradict this. B-u-u-u-t…IF you do still think some progressive experiment does require more time to deliver on the promised results, then you still must reckon with the unhelpful evidence VDH heaps upon you. It’s like the Moynihan rule: We’re all entitled to our own opinions but not to our own facts.

All in all, it’s great stuff to haul to that Thanksgiving banquet table when you’re sitting across the cranberries from your spittle-flinging McGovern-voting whackjob liberal granduncle.
- mkfreeberg | 06/28/2011 @ 06:40
I guess Hanson’s writing reminds me of something Jonah Goldberg once said when discussing left-wing media bias. He wrote, “The trouble with writing about media bias is that it’s old news to those who agree with you, and sour grapes to those who don’t.”

I guess I hadn’t realized things had gotten so bad, but then, the Central Valley region where he lives has been struggling with severe economic issues for some time now. I’m told that some of those little farming towns are well over 30% unemployment…in some cases actually worse than when it was during the Great Depression.

Hanson strikes another chord with me, and that’s that he makes me wistful and longing for a time when Americans built things, innovated, and got things done. This kind of hit me last night while I was watching a program on Travel Channel. They sent some guy to Buffalo, NY, where he was shown the remnants of the Erie Canal and the ruins of the factories, luxury hotels, and grain elevators that sprung up along it over the years. Although the economic boom times began over three decades before the Civil War, apparently it continued all the way into the 1960s.

I know I’m going to sound like one of those pathetic union workers that we on the Right dislike so intensely, but I sure do miss the times when things were grown, built, or made in America instead of in Third World countries…and when progress was king, and when we forged ahead and got er done, instead of worrying about how it was going to impact some snail darter. You know, before we started falling all over ourselves apologizing for our own history and letting the rest of the world wipe its feet on our flag…

Hanson also hit upon the Delta smelt at one point, and unfortunately he is right on what a mess it’s made just by existing – or more precisely, what a mess our state government has made trying to protect it. Here in Sacramento we’re looking at a *tripling* of our sewer rates over the next 10 years.

Why? So that the sewage disposal people can get $2 billion to build a new sewage treatment facility which will result in lower levels of something-or-other currently being discharged into the Delta, which in turn is harming a three-inch non-special non-essential fish species. Some government body actually put the matter to a vote and unanimously decided to impose the new water treatment requirements, despite a public outcry that we can’t afford this nonsense in a time when people can’t even buy groceries and pay their mortgages.

I couldn’t help noticing that since it’s ratepayers who are expected to foot the bill for this nonsense, it’s no problem. We the people have infinite resources and can never be taxed enough, after all. But had federal, state, or local funding been involved, it would have been,” We can’t afford that!” Which is exactly what was heard from the public…which was ignored.

I’m not irritated with Hanson because I disagree with him and am unable to refute what he says. I’m irritated with him because I know he’s right…when I would really like him to be wrong.
- cylarz | 06/29/2011 @ 00:42

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“There Are No Socialists”Monday, June 27th, 2011

“There Are No Socialists”
Monday, June 27th, 2011