GraniteGrok

Given the recent penchant for the Democrats, especially the more "progressive" ones that want to fold as much as they can into the Federal government, I thought I'd share since I spotted this at Greg Mankiw's site:

In this regard, I found this tidbit thought-provoking:

"The word 'nationalization' scares the hell out of people," Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said on "This Week." To combat that, some clever advocates of nationalization have come up with alternative names, including "government receivership" and "pre-privatization." (Source.)

Just like "pre-owned" is the same as "used" in the car biz?  Let's hide the intent, the dirty fact, by calling it something else!  Pre-Privatization?  Umm, can you really say that, as they WERE private before TARP?  Ugh!

The search for alternative names can be amusing at first, but I think there is more here than mere semantics.

Why are people scared about the idea of nationalization? One reason is that it is a sign of the depth of our problems. A second, more substantive reason is that it seems to point in a bad direction. I certainly do not want the government deciding who deserves credit and who does not, what kind of investments are worthy of financing and what kind are not. That is a big step toward crony capitalism, where the politically connected get the goodies, and economic stagnation awaits the rest of us.

Dr. Mankiw (PhD, economics, at Harvard) is right - and points out why Conservatives so distrust Big Government!  As it grows larger, there are more and more opportunities for political favors to be exchanged and they may not be necessarily positive for we, the governed.

Look at two quick examples: Barney Frank (D-MA) who has oversight of Fannie and Freddie (and whose lover was a high placed operative there) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) with the "Friend of Angelo" mortgage (also with oversight of Fannie and Freddie).  Lax policies they defended, we get to pay for.  And yes, it happens on the Right too - Cunningham (R-CA) for bribery.

Anyways, back to Maxine Waters (D-CA), moonbat. She is certainly no stranger to wanting to nationalize industries - a strict nationalist, she has no love for the capitalist system. 

Her occupying that Congress seat, in and by itself, shows how bad our educational system can be (not just for this latest outburst - she has had more than her moonbattery outbursts over the years). Her grasp of how things really work in the real world is astonishing.  Yes, there are failures in the world, and get excerbated by government meddling and ignorance of the Law of Unintended Consequences. 

A rose by another other name is a rose....and we all now know what "pre-owned" really means.

But "pre-privatization"?  A push too far, in my book.....