The American Spectator

The Public Policy

Flower Power

By Peter Ferrara on 8.14.08 @ 12:08AM

(Page 3 of 4)

Obama promises millions of new jobs producing all of those happy solar panels, lovely wind turbines that are already slaughtering bird populations, and biofuels that are already starving poor countries. But we cannot build a prosperous economy based on industries that are kept alive through billions and billions in federal life support subsidies.

That means Obama's $150 billion in increased federal spending to create "green technology" jobs, $7,000 tax credit for each of those one million wonderful plug-in hybrid cars, "billions in loans and capital," and "federal resources, including tax incentives and government contracts."

Note that when Obama uses the words "invest" and "investment," he means increased federal spending, financed by all the federal taxes he says he is going to raise.

OBAMA IS RIGHT about one thing. His flower power "transformation" of the economy "will be costly." He will not pretend, he says, that it can be achieved, "without cost, without sacrifice, or without the contribution of almost every American."

What it will cost is the sacrifice of the standard of living of the middle class and working people. Contrary to Obama's false posturing, the federal government has been providing billions and billions in subsidies to "alternative fuels" like wind, solar and biofuels since the late 1970s. Not much good has come of it, surely not an alternative fuel source that can power our modern American economy and maintain our standard of living and economic growth.

The new flower power technology is a pipe dream for now. Trying to force it on the economy today rather than trying to increase production and reduce costs for proven oil, gas and nuclear power will sharply raise costs for business.

That will mean less jobs, lower wages, and lower economic growth, probably declining growth and a declining economy. Manufacturing jobs will flee overseas where they can find lower cost reliable energy, in countries that are still happy to produce as much oil, coal, gas, and nuclear power as they can.

Because of the inadequacy of the new Flower Power, in many cases both business and consumers will simply have to do without. For businesses, that means they just close their doors, and lay off their workers, because they can't get reliable energy supply. In the case of consumers, that means they suffer with less.

Obama and the Left in general just love the so-called CAFE fuel economy standards, requiring production of cars meeting a certain miles per gallon standard.

Conservatives have rightly pointed out that results in the production of smaller and lighter cars that are less safe, with greater injuries and death arising from auto accidents. But there is an even more fundamental problem with these CAFE standards: They deny consumers freedom of choice.

Consumers cannot choose cars with power, performance and safety that achieve less miles per gallon than the government requires. The government through these requirements is imposing its choices on consumers, rather than leaving them free to make their own choices. Consumers are perfectly capable of deciding what cars they want with what features. It amounts to a loss of liberty as well as a loss of prosperity for the government to impose its preferences on them instead.

But that is the essence of the economic policies of the Left across the board. Obama's insistence on increasing the fuel economy standards by 4 percent every year, his maintenance of high oil and gasoline prices, and the inadequacy of his flower power alternatives, are all going to force the middle class and working people out of the powerful, spacious, safer automobiles they enjoy today, into the little, weak, dangerous cars that are driven in Europe and the Third World.

Already American car manufacturers are starting to shift the cars they have been producing for the European market to the American market. This is what I mean by a declining standard of living.

Moreover, as Obama's flower power technologies fail to produce adequate supplies, American consumers will simply have to cut back on their driving altogether. Expect that under a President Obama gas rationing will eventually be imposed, limiting each driver to a certain number of miles driven each week. That can be forced by requiring rationing cards for the purchase of gasoline.

OBAMA PROMISES as well "to call on business, government and the American people to meet the goal of reducing our demand for electricity 15 percent by the end of the next decade."

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Barack Obama, Business, Environment, NATO, Energy, Oil