If we libertarians had a patron saint, it would have to be Cassandra, the mythic Princess of Troy.
I’m sure that both liberals and conservatives would readily concur, having long regarded us as the benighted, political fringe – prophesying doom at the mere suggestion of any new, government program.
But the Cassandra of Greek mythology was not some irrational alarmist.
The story goes that she was the beautiful daughter of King Priam with whom Apollo became so smitten that he gave her the ability to see the future as a token of his affection. When she still spurned his advances, and Olympian rules would not permit rescinding the gift, he placed a curse on her that no one would ever believe her predictions.
Libertarians know well the burden poor Cassandra had to bear.
To see disaster looming yet be utterly unable to get anyone to heed your warnings is to endure a kind of frustration beyond description.
We knew, for instance, that an income tax would never be kept to 2% on only the wealthiest taxpayers. And that withholding it from paychecks as a WWII “Victory Tax” would persist long after victory was achieved.
We knew that the Social Security “Trust Fund” would be looted as soon as the people were asleep and the politicians could climb down out of this giant, wooden horse. And that the number associated with the new “benefit” would end up becoming a de facto, national ID.
I could provide a hundred such examples. But big government apologists would dismiss them all as mere hindsight.
So let’s put Cassandra on record now for events yet to unfold.
What does our libertarian, crystal ball prognosticate for, say, a General Motors where the federal government has controlling interest?
Here is how at least this Cassandra sees the future unfolding.
First, peripheral companies, labor unions, and everyone else with a stake in the operations of what has become “Government Motors” will cajole their representatives in congress – whose election campaigns they supported – to override the Board of Directors and legislate business decisions.
Oh, wait. Too late for that to count as a prediction. Thousands of car dealers got to the capitol before I got to the bottom of the page. But there will be plenty more rent seekers. Taxpayer/investors better buckle up because now… “It’s the law!”
Moving a little farther down the road, political rather than consumer preferences will inevitably dictate automotive design.
Environmentalists, for example, will lobby for production of a whole fleet of Chevy Volt type vehicles. The fact that there is no market for a $40,000 car that is unsafe, uncomfortable, has limited capacity and range, not to mention no supporting infrastructure, will be regarded as little more than an inconvenient truth.
A few years later Government Motors will be right back where General Motors was in 2009 – on the brink of bankruptcy. Except this time sitting on a massive inventory of vehicles people don’t want, even presuming a less moribund economy.
In a panic Pelosi & Co. will slap a $2 or $3 per gallon federal tax on gasoline to provide some additional incentive for consumers to buy their glorified golf carts.
When that proves insufficient they will issue purchase vouchers – which, of course, merely shift, rather than reduce, the cost of the vehicles.
Or maybe reverse the order of those developments. (Prophecy is an inexact art.)
Now, lest you think Cassandra only capable of dire warnings, she also sees a happy development in the offing.
It will be right about then that some clever person discovers how to cost-effectively crack water — separating it into its hydrogen and oxygen constituents.
This 21st century heir to the entrepreneurial spirit of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford will usher in a new era of safe, efficient, non-polluting vehicles.
And America might finally learn the lesson that a productive public/private “partnership” is a myth, our treasury only a trillion dollars or so lighter for the tuition.
Actually, I’m not so sure about that last one. But go ahead and feel free to ignore all of this anyway. Everyone does.
