Government Regulation

Whew! Y’know, it takes a lot of stones to use filthy language like that, especially in the title. I might as well have called it &%#%, or @#%&, or even &*#^%$. Especially when I reveal that it’s about government regulations . . . that I approve of.

A lot of what this comes down to is some of the surprising differences between liberals and conservatives. Especially within the context of the dominant spiritual beliefs on both sides.

For instance, it is the liberals, driven by Eastern and New Age philosophies, that are the greatest advocates of the poor and downtrodden. It was they who argued AGAINST regulations that would have kept banks from offering the kind of loans, the adjustable rate loans that go from way-low interest to way-high, that got us into the trouble we’re in now.

Their reasoning was that it would allow people to buy houses that might not otherwise be able to. Ever. And we should encourage everybody to do everything they’re capable of. Because Humankind is basically good, and left to its own devices will always, in the end, do the best possible things. This is the thinking that gave us the civil rights movement, and railed against the war in Vietnam when all the Vietnamese wanted was to try a different economic model than we used. One that, on paper, looked a lot like the book of Acts, chapter 2. What could be more spiritual than socialism, where everyone was equal and all shared from a common pot?

This political philosophy says that marriage is an old-fashioned idea. That education based on learning by rote memorization is cruel and unusual punishment. That there’s nothing wrong with homosexuality. After all, it feels good, doesn’t it? And abortion? Why, it’s the simplest form of birth control. Go ahead and have all the sex you want, with anyone you please, and if something unpleasant happens, a little local anesthetic and a snip and you’re free again. Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

Unless, of course, you’re rich. Or white. Or a Christian. Or, for that matter, male. In fact, sometimes simply being an American is bad. These are the belief systems and behavioral patterns that need to be restricted and regulated. These things are harmful, and need to be discouraged. Their narrow-minded adherents need to be persecuted and silenced. A strange thing for people to do that stand up for the persecuted and offer a voice for the downtrodden.

And then we have the conservative. In this country, conservative philosophy centers around tried and true Judeo-Christian ethics. Hard work, fidelity and honesty are rewarded. All forms of sin are discouraged. And to those who work hard and are creative, the rewards can be great. If you make a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. Go ahead, drive a Mercedes, or ride in the back of a Rolls, or fly on a G5. You’ve earned it. And, it puts a lot of other people to work. Success makes you worthy of all the rewards you can enjoy, and all the power you can grasp.

Except that the same Holy Bible that tells us, if a man shall not work, neither shall he eat, tells us that no one is without sin, no, not one. Humankind is inherently corrupt. Human nature is base, and left to its own devices is drawn to sin. It is only by force of will and the grace of God that we can ever be truly worth anything, or do anything good.

So it shouldn’t really be a big surprise when the wealthy businessman or powerful politician abuses their privileges. When they manipulate the markets for their own gain. When they engineer the collapse of others’ fortunes to add to their own. When they conspire to make shoddy products and inflate the price. When they put their profits and their power above the good of their neighbor, or their nation.

It is the reason that no rich person ever seems to be truly happy. In their glory, they look down on the rest of us, and actively belittle those who serve them. And inside is the gnawing truth that, without all that money, they’re no different from the meanest, the lowest. They dread losing that money, and they know that another rich person would snatch it all away from them if they could.

And that is the failing of conservatism in this country. It resists using the power of government to restrict the activities of people who have no other restrictions put on them, save their own conscience. And that proves, too often, to be too weak a power.

When taken to its furthest extremes, both liberalism and conservatism can be taken too far. Liberalism can find its fullest expression in communism, which is totalitarian. Conservatism winds up as fascism, which is also totalitarian. And both can also lead in the other direction, to libertarianism and from there to anarchy. Human nature requires the rule of law for its own survival and growth. And yet, the writers and enforcers of that law are themselves human. Too much law is as bad as too little.

Some restrictions are necessary, as the banking crisis has shown us. I have a suggestion for government regulations that I think would have good effect.

One thing that cries out for regulation is the automobile. With oil being in the hands of robber barons, the less of it we use, the better. And, let’s face it, pollution is bad. I don’t know if air pollution causes global warming or not, and I don’t care. The simple fact is, it can’t be good to shovel tons of soot into the atmosphere. Anybody who advocates buying SUVs just to spite the Democrats should have their pool peed in. Let’s see what they think about a little pollution then.

Cars, and pickups and SUVs and minivans, should all be strictly regulated in regard to safety, fuel mileage and emissions. These things will lead to good results. The main reason for not doing it is that it would keep the cost of manufacturing and development lower, but these developments should be done. And the American public regularly shows that it prefers to buy big pickups to small cars, so the pickups, etc. should be included in the regulations. Is a Ford F150 that gets 15 mpg really that much better than one that gets 40?

I’ve seen in my lifetime how much cars can improve when they have to change to meet restrictions like these. Yes, I have fond memories of Boss Mustangs and Hemicudas, but a 2009 Toyota is safer and cheaper to operate, and you can even get them that go like a bat out of hell.
And if you regulate things like fuel efficiency, emissions, and safety, it relieves the companies of the temptation to beat their competitor’s prices by ignoring those things. Everybody has to meet the same marks, so quality and availability become the things that make your product stand out.

The trouble with too many liberals is that they cannot afford to acknowledge the significant progress that has already been made regarding things like air and water pollution. I once saw a pair of photographs that told quite a story all by themselves. It was two pictures of the Los Angeles skyline, taken from roughly the same location offshore in the Pacific Ocean. One was taken in the early 1960’s, the second in 1988. In the early one, all you could see was a cloud of smog with a couple tops of buildings rising out of it, and blue sky above. In the second, you could clearly see the city, even though there was a faint gray haze around it.

The automobile of today puts out less than 5% of the harmful emissions of its 1950’s counterpart. But when was the last time you heard a liberal thank the auto industry for this? No, and you won’t any time soon, either.

Just today (Feb. 14, 2009) I heard a fellow on the radio (NPR, of course) bemoaning the fact that the stimulus package that just passed through congress is too SMALL, because they took out some of the environmental spending.

"If an asteroid were heading for the Earth," he said, "and were going to strike in ten years, it would be the biggest story in the media." Every news outlet would be talking to every scientist they could find, and the urgency to destroy or turn the asteroid would be regarded as the most important thing for our government to spend money on. Why then is our impending doom from climate change so roundly ignored?

Because we’ve heard it all before. When I was in high school back in the early ‘70’s they told us that in ten years you wouldn’t be able to go outside without a wide-brimmed hat because of the destruction of the ozone layer. Well, guess what? Forty years on, the story this guy told smells of bovine excrement. The world likely will not come to an end in ten years unless an asteroid hits it, or the Lord brings his judgement on us. Or Al Gore smites us with his rod and staff. But intelligent regulation on the automobile industry is long overdue, for the good of all.