Thursday, May 13, 2010

Big Brother Pace Accelerates

How much do you want to tell the federal government about your life? Are they really "here to help you"? Should they be concerned with your protection? Should they worry about your eating habits? Your smoking? Drinking? Spending? Driving? Travels?

It is so easy to set that first foot on the slippery slope and before you know it you are careening out of control down the mountain side to a grim outcome.

We shudder when we read about terrorist attacks, so we beg to be watched and monitored. We decry police brutality when we see the local gendarmerie wailing away on some poor indigent who happened to offend them, but we don't express concern at the degree of video monitoring that occurs routinely in our lives. If you are outside your home, there is a very good chance that you're on candid cameras. In the bank or 7-11, at the mall or in the department store, in your workplace or at the cafeteria, someone has you on tape. Don't pick your nose in public.

A Toyota may or may not accelerate because a careless driver may or may not be pressing on the wrong pedals and they may or may not be innocent of staging the whole thing. So, we demand government step in and protect us. Congress holds "hearings" in which they don't hear, they pontificate and berate. We love it apparently and beg for more.

What do you think of this:

Consumer Protection is A Malapropism

I don't like the very concept of a federal "Office of Financial Research". The name smacks of invasion of privacy. Financial transactions should operate under the prinicples of "Caveat Emptor". Deals should be between a willing buyer and a willing seller at an agreed price that is based on value determined in the marketplace. Checking on the deal is the responsibility of the parties involved. Due diligence is a hallowed principle. If a deal is "too good to be true..." we know what that means. I don't want government "researching" my finances.

Similarly the "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau" triggers images of a Washington bureaucrat being in the approval loop for my next shoe purchase or sporting goods acquisition. "Sorry, sir, but the CFPB doesn't think this is a wise purchase for you."

Where do these people get these ideas? More importantly, why do we seem to demand that they do this to us?

1 comment:

MagiK said...

The more Government Entities fail (SEC with Madoff, SEC and Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae) the more Liberals want of the failed entities...I dont get it. If it doesnt work, we need more of it, is the message.