Rather than getting into the weeds of Steve Rattner’s New York Times op-ed on how much simpler it would be if we operated like China, I would only say that we can’t control China’s behavior but we can control our own. We might think about that when reflecting on how to deal with whatever threat China poses to us. In other words I agree with Walt Kelly: we have met the enemy and he is us.
Meanwhile, discuss the irony in this sentence from the op-ed:
As a capitalist, I’ve never believed in excessive government intervention in the economy.
Maybe I should have titled this post “No True Scotsman Alert”.
“And the band played on…….”
You seem to doubt his sincerity. Why? I suspect that like most business people he really does oppose excessive govt intervention, but like most people he just means govt intervention he doesn’t like. There is tons of govt intervention conservatives support, from voter ID to invading foreign countries of for no apparent reason that costs us thousands of lives. Business people, many of them, want special intervention so that they pay taxes at lower rates than the rest of us. The list is wrong, and we could make one for the left if so inclined.
Steve
A. Steve Rattner is not a business person. He’s a party apparatchik.
B. I don’t doubt his sincerity. I doubt his self-awareness.