Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert, emerged a few years back as one of the cleverest cartoonists in the long history of that art. His eponymous protagonist, by now familiar to everyone, is a software engineer with vaguely defined duties at a large technology firm. Dilbert’s closest companion is Dogbert, a philosophical pooch with the self-professed aim of world conquest.
When the Soviet Union’s central planners failed year after year to produce a respectable grain harvest, they blamed “bad weather.” If only the weather could be controlled, Moscow dreamed, communism might be made to work. Officially, communism is dead, but the bureaucratic obsession with controlling the weather lives on in Washington, D.C.
‘Seizing power is the essence of government as we know it. It’s not as easy as it once was. As public trust in government has plummeted, and resistance to central rule has grown, officials invent ever-new rationales. Here are just a few of the newest benefits the central state promises us if we relinquish more power to Washington:
When the IMF declares a country an “economic miracle,” look out. A financial crisis cannot be far behind.
First it was Japan, the juggernaut that was said to be on the verge of supplanting the U.S. as an economic superpower. Then it was Mexico, the model of how former banana republics can be transformed into thriving market economies. Then it was the Czech Republic’s turn as a model of de-socialization. Then the Asian Tigers took their turn in a financial fall from grace.
History books and the popular culture are full of stories about how “the white man” brutally mistreated the American Indians during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Greedy capitalists are usually portrayed as the villains, killing Indians by the thousands to make way for the railroads in particular and economic development of the West in general.
China is undergoing one of the great economic transformations in human history. It has moved from communism toward what it calls “market socialism” at breakneck pace, and enjoyed double-digit economic growth as a result.
As an inevitable consequence, the grip of central state power has begun to relax. Even such draconian policies as the one-child-per-family rule are loosening in practice if not yet in law.
Everyone knows about the class-action lawsuit against Hooters, the restaurant featuring waitresses in shorts and tight t-shirts. In the settlement, Hooters paid $2 million to the men who were denied the opportunity to serve as Hooter Girls, another $1.75 million in lawyer’s fees, and created three new “gender-neutral positions.”
Competition is a process, the Austrian economists have long said, not a moment frozen in time. Today’s dominant company could be tomorrow’s rubble. Whether the winner can stay on top is dependent on its management, its ability to innovate, and, above all, the will of the consuming public.
It’s time to start thinking of the stock market as a giant S&L. Money continues to pour in, despite a bounty of evidence that the extraordinary gains of the last few years cannot be enjoyed in the near future. The perception has never been stronger that the stock market is the right place to be for your long-term investment needs.
Scrooge came in the form of government last year. The company Bill Gates built into the planet’s leading money machine is still the target of a federal probe and a senate inquiry. The charge: anti-competitive behavior.
