Last night I forgot until late that I was subbing for John, so I had to write very quickly. Time isn’t much more plentiful tonight, so I will try to write some of the things I wasn’t able to include last night.
I wrote the diary about a USA Today story describing the hideous and cowardly trick lease-to-own trucking companies play on the truckers who haul products for them. Essentially they create a scenario in which drivers pay them thousands of dollars to try to pay for trucks they will never ever own. Indeed, they are all but guaranteed to lose every penny they ever put toward ownership before they are fired, leaving the companies with an endless source of essentially free transportation for their products, with trucks paid for by others, with huge advantages in market competition, and with no accountability for such unfair practices.
More below.
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Our political adversaries trumpet the virtues of the ‘free market’ and free enterprise. They worship, in their way, John Galt and Ayn Rand and Adam Smith. But what we see in today’s political world was never really foreseen (much less addressed by) those conscience-less titans of conservative political philosophy.
Now, free market means no oversight. It means no accountability, no matter what consequences result from a commercial endeavor. It means no responsibility. It means no impediment to any unfair practices whatsoever. They. Can. Do. Anything. They. Want.
Cheat, lie, steal, collude, conspire … no limits.
To hear them talk, there is ‘fair competition’ between products and ideas, with the best products and ideas being naturally selected for advancement by the free market. “They’ succeed’ economically based on merit.
The problem with that is, it is a myth, an illusion, a lie. The ‘free market’ made transgressions like Volkswagen’s possible. Great economic advantage was obtained by simply engineering a software ‘cheat’ for emissions testing. As a result, they could advertise ‘clean diesel’ vehicles without having to PROVIDE clean diesel vehicles. The environment was thrown under the bus, customers defrauded and Volkswagen made millions.
What incentive did the free market provide for Volkswagen to do the right thing? None, whatsoever. What mechanism did the free market provide to provide oversight against violations like Volkswagen’s? None, whatsoever. The oversight capabilities that eventually caught and punished Volkswagen for that inexcusable cheating are now under attack by 45 and his catastrophic cabinet, by the entire Republican apparatus in Congress, which they completely control. Two years from now it is completely plausible that a comparable transgression would never see the light of day. Or, if it did, that the company in violation would face no consequences because of it.
Now, in political terms, we see the ‘free market’ concept abused even more egregiously, if that is possible. The party of the ‘free market’ literally NEVER misses a trick to cheat political ‘consumers’ when it comes to their brand. They gerrymander districts to create legislative majorities they never could win on merit. They suppress minority voters to realize victories in locations where they could never win on merit. They create rules giving corporations obscene levels of influence and power, to the detriment of human citizens. There really are no meaningful rules when it comes to campaign finance. Obscene amounts of money flow into political campaigning, with very little functional oversight or accountability. I try to fight with my contributions of tens of dollars, here and there, the Kochs by themselves funnel hundreds of millions of dollars every campaign season. They each have a vote, just like I do. But their influence goes far beyond mine. Because cheating pays, in the free market. And no free market mechanism will EVER arrest cheating, will never function to the benefit of our society at large. Because they (Kochs/conservatives/Republicans/corporations) are the most efficient, most practiced, most experienced cheaters in the history of the world. And they come up with new tricks every day. All of which line their pockets more. Not because of any merit.
None of the political manipulation/cheting is what one would do if one had any confidence in one’s political positions, if one had confidence that their political commodity clearly had superior merit relative to our political commodity. Worse, their practices of cheating, lying, misrepresenting, obfuscating, obstructing clearly prove that they are not NEW to these activities. They have used them for generations in BUSINESS, as well. They know perfectly well that there is no such thing as a free market. It is a manipulated market, a sham market, a scam market, where the most proficient CHEATER wins, where the most devious and manipulative businessman profits the most, where even catastrophic environmental compromise is rewarded and applauded, not vilified or prosecuted.
Call them on it. Call their supporters on it. Hold them accountable for cheating. Shine a light on it. They will hate that worse than anything. You can see that from their horrific leader, 45, himself.
He would never articulate a specific idea or plan during the election campaign. Because he knew - as did every legislator and leader in that party - that they could never compete in the ‘free market’ of political ideas. Their cheating is clearest testimony to that fact, and the clearest symbol of their failures and hypocrisy. It is easy for them to put up or shut up about it. They could eliminate gerrymandering with a memo. Voter suppression, unethical campaign finance, all of it. But they are AFRAID to. Because the free market of electoral politics would witness their immediate and permanent political demise. Cowardice. For all to see. Inconsistency with their OWN avowed principles.
Thanks for reading last night and tonight.
On to tonight’s comments! Formatted by my excellent friend, brillig!
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From benny05:
Remarkable Phrase I've Not Seen Before from WB Reeves, in Bob Johnson's diary.
MikeTheLiberal highlighted this comment (comment is slightly out of range but it was highlighted today) by mbayrob, from Mark E Andersen‘s diary The end of the family farm.
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