New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has a column today lamenting the confusion people around the world feel towards America. For the most part, it is the usual statist sort of nonsense that one has come to expect from Friedman, but he gets to the nub of his views in one critical passage:
And that is what bothers me most today. It’s not just that we can no longer pull together to put a man on the moon. It’s that we can’t even implement proven common-sense solutions that others have long mastered — some form of national health care, gun control, road pricing, a gasoline tax to escape our budget and carbon bind.
So what most bothers Friedman is that America has not managed to pass the liberal agenda which will reduce personal freedom. We haven't abrogated the Second Amendment and achieved gun control. We haven't limited the freedom of travel by imposing taxes and fees on people who want to travel in certain areas. We haven't limited the ability of the private healthcare market to function by putting everything under the control of the government. For gosh sakes, hasn't he seen the chaos that has resulted from just Obamacare? Oh, and let's not forget that America has not adopted taxes to fight global warming, even though the warming has stopped and the models that predicted it in the first place have been proven inaccurate by decades of data.
Friedman's model which he describes in his column is Singapore. He also has a kind word to say for China. In neither country are people free. Neither country is a democracy, but that does not say enough. In China, the government regulates all behavior. It even tells people how many children they can have. The economy has been freed and it has boomed, but the idea of personal liberty does not exist in China. Nor is there liberty in Singapore. While it is certainly not a Communist state like China, the level of government control of personal lives in Singapore is nearly as total as in China.
So, what Friedman really dislikes is freedom. How can he hold his head up abroad when we have the American people making decisions? It is just so embarrassing if not bewildering to Tommy that America does not have a phalanx of government "experts" deciding at all times what is good for the populace. Maybe the best way to say it is that Friedman is hoping the government of the people, by the people and for the people will perish in America.
And that is what bothers me most today. It’s not just that we can no longer pull together to put a man on the moon. It’s that we can’t even implement proven common-sense solutions that others have long mastered — some form of national health care, gun control, road pricing, a gasoline tax to escape our budget and carbon bind.
So what most bothers Friedman is that America has not managed to pass the liberal agenda which will reduce personal freedom. We haven't abrogated the Second Amendment and achieved gun control. We haven't limited the freedom of travel by imposing taxes and fees on people who want to travel in certain areas. We haven't limited the ability of the private healthcare market to function by putting everything under the control of the government. For gosh sakes, hasn't he seen the chaos that has resulted from just Obamacare? Oh, and let's not forget that America has not adopted taxes to fight global warming, even though the warming has stopped and the models that predicted it in the first place have been proven inaccurate by decades of data.
Friedman's model which he describes in his column is Singapore. He also has a kind word to say for China. In neither country are people free. Neither country is a democracy, but that does not say enough. In China, the government regulates all behavior. It even tells people how many children they can have. The economy has been freed and it has boomed, but the idea of personal liberty does not exist in China. Nor is there liberty in Singapore. While it is certainly not a Communist state like China, the level of government control of personal lives in Singapore is nearly as total as in China.
So, what Friedman really dislikes is freedom. How can he hold his head up abroad when we have the American people making decisions? It is just so embarrassing if not bewildering to Tommy that America does not have a phalanx of government "experts" deciding at all times what is good for the populace. Maybe the best way to say it is that Friedman is hoping the government of the people, by the people and for the people will perish in America.
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