The Hits Just Keep On Coming

There are few things I read anymore that I consider jaw-droppingly asinine, but this would definitely qualify. John Stossel, that well known capitalist libertarian windbag, argues that price gouging is a good thing because it saves lives! His rationale is that the only people who would choose to buy water and gas at inflated prices are the ones who really need it, so the supply will be there for them. You can read the rest of it, as he invokes faulty analogies and Economics 101 dogma. I was almost speechless after reading that. Aside from his callousness, Stossel didn't take into consideration that many people who were affected by the hurricane don't even have $20 in their pockets to buy a bottle of water.

Government doesn't have all the answers, but neither does unbridled capitalism. And it used to be that, aside from the extremists on each end of the spectrum, the political battles were over how to find the right balance between regulated capitalism and limited socialism. I fear that now the New Deal abolitionists are gaining momentum in the U.S., and it won't be long before they will in Canada as well. But people have a right to make a buck, and Stossel is right about how the people who re-build the affected areas will command a premium price. I can dig that. So that's a perfect segue to the latest outrage, which I will excerpt :

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush issued an executive order Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.

In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused "a national emergency" that permits him to take such action under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Bush's action came as the federal government moved to provide billions of dollars in aid, and drew rebukes from two of organized labor's biggest friends in Congress, Rep. George Miller of California and Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats.

"The administration is using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities," Miller said.

"President Bush should immediately realize the colossal mistake he has made in signing this order and rescind it and ensure that America puts its people back to work in the wake of Katrina at wages that will get them and their families back on their feet," Miller said.

In other words, the contractors can expect a premium price, but their employees will be working at below scale. You know, I try to keep an open mind. I read and listen to other perspectives, to see if maybe I am way off base in my ideas. There are times when I come very close to being sucked into thinking that conservatives may be onto something, or that Bush isn't as bad as the Left would have you believe. Then something like this comes to my attention, and it's like a cold shower to bring me back to reality. If this isn't Social Darwinism, I don't know what is.