TheAgitator.com
People Unclear on the Concept
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008The Agitatrix and I were listening to D.C. WTOP radio this morning. WTOP is usually a straight new station, using the standard half-hour repeating headline news format.
But this morning anchor Dimitri Sotis was interviewing Sen. Byron Dorgan, who’s been demagoguing the gas price issue. I don’t know if he’s pissed because he filled up on the way into work this morning, but Sotis stepped completely out of character to fawn over Dorgan’s efforts to “do something” about high gas prices. “The government is supposed to help people,” Sotis pled. “Why isn’t anyone doing anything?”
After the interview, Sotis said with exasperation of Dorgan, “Well at least he’s trying. It’s about time someone tried to do something.”
Sotis and his co-anchor then reported four straight stories of government failure, including the failure of U.S. diplomats in Pakistan to properly gage that country’s terror threat, outdated and useless computer software at the FBI, delays and cancellations in Maryland’s mass transit program that forced the state to apologize to commuters, and a story about how the Virginia Lottery has been misrepresenting its payoffs to customers.
Blows my mind how media people report on government failure after government failure after government failure, then still enthusiastically embrace the idea that the solution to every problem is more government.
My favorite recent example is the Senate voting to privatize their food service. They can’t run a cafeteria, yet we’re supposed to just have faith that they can run health care, the energy industry, etc., etc., etc.
I saw a interview with some Democratic Senator (same one? can’t remember) last night on Bloomberg who actually stated that if the US Government taxed the oil companies $.50 of every gallon they wouldn’t dare pass that along to the consumer. With a straight face.
I talked about gas prices with my parents who still live in Europe yesterday. Their cars (3 cars, including a SUV and a Mercedes) average 33.6 miles per gallon (total average; the average per car varies). That’s better than my two-door Civic (32 mpg). And they don’t get such a good mileage because the government helped them in any way to get cheaper gas; on the contrary.
(Speaking about government and cheap gas, I didn’t realize this until I heard it on NPR this morning, but the high gas taxes in Europe – up to 60% of final price – are blunting the effect increasing oil prices have on the final price of gas at the pump.)
People view the government as the only entity with the power to do something. They attribute failure to a bad idea or human error. They do not attribute failure to the greater power of government, because they want an entity with power to take care of them and if that entity fails, it cannot take care of them. The people are infants.
While not wanting to emulate Europe, it is interesting that Europe has been going on quite happily with $8-$10/gallon gas. Indeed, becoz the gas taxes are so high, there is less consumption and the rise in the oil price is less noticed because it is a smaller percentage of the total cost. By contrast, the taxes in the US do not even cover road maintenance costs, let alone all the externalities caused by driving, and has to raid general revenue to cover the costs. (i.e. a subsidy! Supposedly “free-market” USA being more “socialist” than the Europeans in this regard).
A further distortion is that the Europeans subsidize diesel, while the US taxes it more than regular petrol. This seems madness in the USA, as we can encourage people to get out of their cars and walk, but I can’t imagine the grocery store getting its deliveries from a bunch of guys on bicycles.
There’s nothing sane about the government’s handling of fuel prices. Much as the politicians might complain about high gas prices, have they considered removing the $0.51/gallon tariff Bush slapped on Brazilian ethanol? No.
Typical politicians…they want cheap prices for their constituents but only as long as they don’t have to take away special protections from their biggest contributors.
I tell ya, we’ll find a pony in there yet. You just wiat and see.
I think it is an result of the growing infantialization of the U.S. populace. We want government to do more and more for us. Tell us who we can and can’t marry, protect us from hurricanes, earthquakes, drugs, alcohol, terrorists, mad cow disease, bird flu, and our own eating habits. The less we have to make decisions on the happier we seem to be.
America…land of the sheeple, home of the timid.
In my previous life as a meteorologist, I wrote an article for a weather policy journal arguing that scientists should not support the Kyoto Protocol if they don’t believe it will actually solve the problems as intended. I was shocked by some of the feedback I received, with scientists basically saying, “well, it’s still better than doing nothing.” I realize that politicians make a living by pretending to solve problems, but you’d think that SCIENTISTS would at least know better. Ever since that incident, I fail to be surprised when people embrace “solutions” that clearly won’t solve anything.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go sell my local congressman some beans that will magically bring oil prices back down to $50/bbl…
Blows my mind how media people report on government failure after government failure after government failure, then still enthusiastically embrace the idea that the solution to every problem is more government.
I’m no psychologist, but wouldn’t this be the textbook definition of ‘cognitive dissonance’?
@Scott,
I don’t know if it’s the textbook definition of “cognitive dissonance,” but it was damn sure Einstein’s definition of “insanity.”
SJE says… ‘it is interesting that Europe has been going on quite happily with $8-$10/gallon gas’
i wouldn’t say they are ‘happy’ about $8/gallon gas. in fact, from recent reports, they are close to rioting in some EU countries because of the high cost of fuel. i don’t think any normal person could be happy with paying ~$4/gallon in gas tax plus a 17.5% tax on the gas tax. lets not equate ‘learned to live with it’ with ‘happy’
I certainly would love to see more European-style vehicles here. Maybe I’m biased watching Top Gear, but they have a ton of cool little cars there, from a lot of manufacturers. And what do we have dominating the market? GM crap big cars, Dodge crap big cars, and Ford crap not-as-big cars. Even the Japanese cars we get are not the smaller ones they make.
People in general don’t seem to get the concept that Radley’s pointing out, not just the media. “Someone” always needs to fix something, even though it’s not something that’s fixable. And the someone that they always turn to is the same someone that continually fails, but has the excuse that ‘we didn’t have enough money, we didn’t try hard enough, give us another chance.’ I wish I got that many chances.
Scott,
I’ve come to believe this disorder is the main problem with most people. At least half if not most people suffer from this delusional behavior to some degree, while five percent or more have a serious problem with it.
The percentages tend to be higher among politicians for some reason.
“…government failure after government failure after government failure…”
Well, geez Radley. At least they’re trying. After all, that’s all that really matters.
Hahaha! Just kidding. I’m all for shooting a couple of them out in the parking lot as an incentive to get the rest to shape up.
You keep doing something until it works. Throw enough money at the problem and it’ll go away. Never mind the collateral damage. Ninety percent of people want somebody else to do their thinking for them. Why not a bunch of lawyers and other hotheads?
WRT Europe’s high prices… remember people that most countries in Europe have a highly evolved public transit system that actually goes to the places most people want to go. Why? Because they built the transit systems FIRST and then the cities around where the stops were.
FWIW I would also like to point out that while their fuel is more expensive, in general they have more disposable income because they don’t have to pay for health care.
Matt: I didnt say that the CONSUMERS were happy paying $8-$10/gallon of gas. My point is that Europeans seem quite happy despite that price: the economy ticks along, people live, go to work, go on vacations. Even Australia, which is more like America in terms of large and spread out, survives on gas that is about twice what the US consumer pays, and has an economy that has been growing at U.S.-type rates for many years.
In other words, expensive gas is not a sign of the end of the world, or the collapse of the economy. We will deal.
Australia is also “younger” than the USA, and has a more privatized system of medical care than the USA.
France is pulling out of military excercises because of the fuel costs. http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_french_navy_060908/
To say that large taxes help buffer price increases is attributing to cognitive dissonance of having high fuel prices in the first place. Just because their fuel costs have gone up less in consumer % should not advocate increasing taxes.
Only a decrease in regulation can decrease fuel costs. Thats it. Jack up the supply.
SJE : you should have said that in the first place then. to me ‘going on quite happily’ doesnt translate to ‘their economies are doing ok’
Highway: I certainly would love to see more European-style vehicles here. Maybe I’m biased watching Top Gear, but they have a ton of cool little cars there, from a lot of manufacturers. And what do we have dominating the market? GM crap big cars, Dodge crap big cars, and Ford crap not-as-big cars. Even the Japanese cars we get are not the smaller ones they make.
DOT crash standards are to blame there. We can’t import those cars. It’s illegal.
Steam McQueen: remember people that most countries in Europe have a highly evolved public transit system that actually goes to the places most people want to go. Why? Because they built the transit systems FIRST and then the cities around where the stops were.
Interesting. I knew the ancient Romans were pretty good about engineering aqueducts and roads, but I had no idea they were so good at building mass transit systems. You do know how old most major European cities are, don’t you?
LOL dave. excellent job of smashing the (presumably smallish) head of the guy who also told us ‘the reasons the europeans have more disposable income is ’cause their medicine’s free’.
Maybe people are (At long last!) realizing they’re not as free as they thought they were. Or they’re squalling because Mommy too her titty away. Or both.
God, I need spellcheck.
And they don’t get such a good mileage because the government helped them in any way to get cheaper gas; on the contrary.
No, but their governments probably don’t force them to dilute their gasoline with other garbage.
//You do know how old most major European cities are, don’t you?//
A lot of the cities are considerably bigger now than they used to be, are they not?
This same radio host has probably done stories on how Americans are “addicted to oil”. The market has finally done what the government has been unable to do for decades. People are driving 4% less this year than last, GM is idling 4 truck plants and trying to unload the Hummer division. People are buying smaller cars and doing all the things that reporters have been suggesting in their typical “addicted to oil” stories and now they run stories about the cost of gas being too high. They finally got their wish. We are driving less and they still aren’t happy.
Wow- MART runs a commuter rail system with hundreds of runs 365 days a year day in day out, then they have a day’s delays on lines due to weather or a traffic accident and this is held up as an example of “failure after failure” of government? Which is MOST of them? Of course no one has ever heard of a private company misrepresenting information to consumers either or having a computer system that doesn’t work. OK, if these are your measures of failure then you have to admit that every day that MART gets someone to work on time, or the lottery has accurate info or every government computer system that does work is an example of success of government. By the measure you have defined here then government is overwhelmingly succesful.
Bobzob: I guess you havent travelled on the MART that often. I did for a year and half. If you have a busy schedule, its not feasible with the delays, cancellations, etc.
#22 regarding US NHTSA crash testing
That’s definitely a law problem. But overall, their crash testing (EuroNCAP) seems equivalent to the actual worthwhile crash testing that’s done in the US (IIHS). US Government crash testing (NHTSA) seems to be thought of as outdated, something I can readily believe.
And if the problem is a law problem, how much would you want to wager that those laws don’t get changed due in large part to lobbying on the part of US automakers? Safety boojums make a nice cover for protectionism.
Yet you managed to make your way on it for a year and half, so calling it a failure seems extreme. So it seems by your report that MART got you where you were going, just not always on time, or even frequently late. Since this is held as an example relative to Dorgan’s proposal, we can by extension assume that Radley thinks Dorgan’s proposal will reduce gas prices, but it won’t do it on time. Fair enough.
Its even more ironic that you complain about government failures ON THE INTERNET, which is an example of a smashingly successful government program.
#27 – they get better mileage because the government forced them to buy more expensive gas!
Oil schocks are predictable. The US should have implemented a tax policy that ensured continuously rising, but reasonably predictable gas prices. This would have allowed people and industry to adapt to using less oil in an efficient and reasonable fashion with significantly less risk.
supercat,
Their gas is the same quality as ours. No significant difference at all.
[...] me about WTOP. I’ve heard WTOP radio reporters slant the news to their liking before, and others have criticized the station’s blind embrace of all things regulatory at the expense of [...]