If I need security, I get a dog. If a group of us need security, we might sign a contract and get a really big, strong dog. Let's call it...I don't know... GOVERNMENT. It's big, stupid, poops in places it shouldn't and wastes a lot of time sleeping and licking its "Representative Wiener", because it can.
But, suppose that big smelly dog also does a reasonably good job protecting my house, and yours. We build factories, we create wealth, we do a lot of useful things.
And it's true that we needed the dog, for security, so we could concentrate on things that idiotic, lazy dogs can't do.
For some reason, Elizabeth Warren concludes from all this that our dog...OWNS OUR HOUSE! That is just a non sequitur. It's a DOG. But here is what she says.
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody! You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did.
Actually, you didn't pay for them, ma'am, the factory owner did. Why would my dog own my house?
The full, surprisingly idiotic video...
(Not sure where I first heard the "why should your dog own your house?" formulation, but my good friend Tony de Jasay is a likely source)
11 comments:
Mungowitz is smart and has a strong work ethic. ...but how did he get that way? It's just genes and environment -- he didn't EARN those characteristics. Hmmm... Let's vote on this and then take his stuff.
[note: this is only a slight paraphrase from what I once heard from a Liberal.]
Which says nothing of the fact that, had we not been forced to pay for government, we might have figured out a few things on our own. Like how to:
a) build private roads as we need them, matching supply and demand rather than the constant congestion we see on some roads while other roads sit idle,
b) educate workers for what is actually done in the world rather than an educational system that's more about signaling than workforce preparation
c) and contract with private defense to the level we needed. It’s hard to imagine, in this scenario, invading Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya!
Ms. Warren, even if I were to grant that you did all these things, you did them poorly.
You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did.
Wow, sounds like my business is really taking advantage of the public! Maybe I should just shut 'er down, eh? I had no idea what a burden I was.
Sorry, guys. I didn't know.
Lauraw,
Well, maybe you are overreacting. Warren makes clear that she doesn't COMPLETELY hate you or COMPLETELY think that you are taking advantage of the public.
After all, she is kind enough to give you a "good for you" pat on the back, and LET you keep "A BIG CHUNK" of what you created. She only wants to take the rest of it, and that is only fair, because you did exploit the roads that the rest of us (and apparently not you) paid for.
So, she is at least kind of nice. :)
My breathing out created the carbon dioxide plants inhaled, and allowed them to exhale oxygen for you to breathe in. Therefore, I own all the stuff you created while breathing.
It's a social contract. You signed it with your respiration.
So I agree with you. What that woman said is pretty stupid.
But you can't really deny that there are some things that are prone to market failure. You don't really think that police, army or education should be privatized?
As Ramesh Ponnuru notes over at NRO, this is like saying that since we wouldn't be able to live or work without the food that farmers produce, that farmers can demand as much money from us as they want? As he notes, "Come to think of it, that is a rough description of the attitudes of most members of the Agriculture Committees."
Funny,
I thought police and fire were paid for out of city taxes. I thought public education, to the extent that it is even “education” at all, was paid for by local real estate taxes. Aren’t roads paid for by a combination of gas taxes and in some cases additional funds from state revenues out of real estate and state income taxes?
Is she running for state senate? What the hell is going on here? What does any of this have to do with the Congress?
…oh that’s right, she’s just being an intellectually sloppy demagogue.
ps - yes, we clearly should privatize school, since the state is doing a terrible job that harms both students and (good) teachers (mostly the former). yes, basic infrastructure like roads, bridges and subways has a long track record of private production in America, so that shouldn’t even be contentious. Sweden, after all, has national school vouchers and fairly privatized roads.
The dog owns the house? Hardly. Tha cat owns the house. The dogs just work there.
Captcha word: "caticon". I'm not kidding.
Oh well. Maybe she'll be better at politics than she was at scholarship.
Talk about "big chunks". The factory owners paid for 100% of those roads. By that, I mean the wealthiest citizens of this country pay enough in taxes to cover all shared services that most of us agree the gubmint should provide.
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