So CITI was ready to pick up a very expensive $50 Million private jet they ordered back in 2005. The luxury Dassault Falcon 7X, one of only nine in the United States, can seat up to 12 and sports a high quality entertainment system and luxurious digs. The problem? Barack Obama didn’t want them to collect on their order. You see CITI accepted money as part of the government’s massive Wall Street bailout and the new President, with the recent memory of auto executives showing up to Congressional hearings for their own bailout on private jets, was no doubt fresh in his mind.
Obama decided it was his place to step in and let the private institution know he did not think accepting the plane was a good idea. Michigan Democrat Senator Levin even wanted to go so far as using the Treasury to block the sale of the French made plane; Obama’s icy reaction seemed to be enough and so the strong arm of the government wasn’t needed, CITI caved and said it wouldn’t accept the toy. There is a valuable lesson here that has nothing to do with corporate extravagance but much to do about the nationalizing of private institutions and our slow descent toward socialism. The lesson? When the government owns business, the government gets what it wants.
Normally it would have been a corporate board or the shareholders themselves rising up when the corporation was heading in the wrong direction. Now it’s the long arm of the federal government, three branches of holier-than-though, approval rating obsessed, media whores who will take any chance they get to meddle in the business of others if it means they can up their own public profile or impress a bevy of hangers-on. Unlike Bank of America and potentially a soon to be onslaught of other financials, the taxpayers are still not the majority shareholders of CITI; that face doesn’t matter to Congresspeople or President’s who are feeling the high that only comes with unchecked power. This won’t be the first or the last time Obama, the Democratic Congress or even many RINO’s pick up a phone or take a ride to the headquarters of a corporation and start dictating their terms.
The question isn’t whether CITI should take ownership of the jet. I think most level headed people can agree the architects of that institution’s disaster should not be looting their companies money for such trivial expenses. What is important is to ask, iff a purchase is within the limits of the law and the authority given to a CEO or a board by its shareholders, is it the job of an American president to tell CITI or any other company how to spend its money? Not in a capitalist society, but unfortunately that is no longer the economic system in which we live.
When one feeds at the trough of another, they all too quickly let go of the liberties that are provided for man and industry by the invisible hand of God. Liberty is born of existence, freedom from tyranny however is not a guarantee for a people who have the gift of freewill. Freedom from tyranny comes from accepting self-determination and rejecting the rule of other men. The financials who took the money and the auto industry who begged for it, will soon find out what the true cost of handing over self-determination really is.
Yesterday we were treated to a new policy on fuel standards that could force the auto industry to adopt thirteen new headaches in a hemorrhaging American marketplace. Congress and the new President had already promised to have a forceful say in the future direction of their business, yesterday they made their first demand. What could the auto industry say to a President and a Congress that saved their debt ridden souls? They whined, they presented their side, they can do little else.
The question of when nationalism will lead to dictatorship in the marketplace has been answered. For millions in our nation the coming brute force will be welcome, it is easy to accept when we agree with the action. No one wants to see CITI executives flying in a luxury jet and many who are concerned with their environment will welcome cleaner air and better mileage for their automobiles. For those reveling in the newfound power of our government over industry, just wait. When a consumer’s want is met with the cold glare of a marketplace controlled by those who decide what they shouldn’t have, the internal desire for liberty will return. By then, it could be too late. Just as import taxes and rules of trade were imposed on the thirteen colonies, the will of our government will soon be felt on the American consumer. Limitations on what goods and services we can consume or the imposition of taxes on the goods that are considered, “unhealthy, undesirable, unsafe, unpopular or un-American,” will be penalized with higher taxes and eventually banned for sale.
As government controls more of our lives, first it was education and taxation, then control of our finances and growth into consumer industries, next with health care and eventually the loss of our self rule, the ability for the government to control our lives will be total. Soon government will dictate the foods we eat, the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, the size of our homes, the amount of wealth we are allowed to keep and where the rest of the money should be distributed.
Those who become tyrannical almost always reach power by promising to annex those things in the free world that scare or plague a population. The tyrannical offer a solution to their ails but at the price of their freedom. This has almost nothing to do with Obama as an individual or the individuals within the Congress but a people who do not value a sense of security over liberty and wish to be coddled and not challenged. We should always remember that George W. Bush and the Republicans were both active members and complacent followers. The tyrannical have taken over both parties with many in the masses begging for their rule. With little value for work or liberty, these individuals will be shocked to wake up one day and find that the freedom they thought they had is gone, replaced for a world where they are ruled by the same restrictions they only wanted to place on others.
The question has been answered, nationalism has now lead to government expansion and the seeds of tyranny that were planted long ago have come to lift. It is up to us to make sure the roots of these ominous plants do not continue to grow.
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