Posted by
Andrews on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 10:30:45 AM
I was going to make some comment along the lines of "Since when did the presidency include the authority to fire the CEO of a private company", but, really, why bother? Thanks to the "partnership" between government and business "demanded" by this financial downturn, the lines between private and public have been blurred to the point that such objections make little sense. Nor can companies even opt out any longer. Thanks to Geitherner's power grab, the government can declare a company "essential" and force them to take help, meaning that the state now apparently has the ability to force any company into such a "partnership".
I don't want to sound alarmist, as I doubt the government has the popular support to fully socialize the economy, but at the moment it actually has the power to do so. As the government can apparently control any aspect of a company accepting government funds, and has the power to compel a company to accept those funds even when it refuses to participate, I see no legal impediment to a full socialization of the economy. Granted, it would be a socialization of "German style", to use von Mises nomenclature, with nominally private heads still running the business, not a Soviet style state socialism, but does that matter?
Fortunately, it appears we will be spared this for now. First, as I said, public sentiment will not accept too much meddling, or meddling too far afield. Banking can certainly be nationalized, and maybe the auto companies, but if the government goes too far from those areas, I think public opinion might scare congress into staging a coup against Obama. Second, even were public opinion not so disinclined to support socialism, I don't think Obama's administration is mature enough to handle this. Despite recent claims that
his political savvy shows he is not an amateur, I stand
with Dr. Sowell and argue he is a "rookie president" and really lacks the political acumen to push through full socialization. Such a power grab would require careful manipulation of both congress and the state governments, as well as many private groups and I don't think Obama has it in him.
So, for now, we have handed almost unlimited power to the state. Fortunately I don't think they have the strength to use it.