Postponing Reality
Opinion Editorial by Thomas Sowell -
Dec 28, 2008
41 ratings from readers
Some of us were raised to believe that reality is inescapable. But that just shows how far behind the times we are. Today, reality is optional. At the very least, it can be postponed.
Kids in school
are not learning? Not a problem. Just promote them on to the next
grade anyway. Call it “compassion,” so as not to hurt their
“self-esteem.”
Can’t meet
college admissions standards after they graduate from high school?
Denounce those standards as just arbitrary barriers to favor the
privileged, and demand that exceptions be made.
Can’t do math
or science after they are in college? Denounce those courses for
their rigidity and insensitivity, and create softer courses that the
students can pass to get their degrees.
Once they are out
in the real world, people with diplomas and degrees — but with no
real education — can hit a wall. But by then the day of reckoning
has been postponed for 15 or more years. Of course, the reckoning
itself can last the rest of their lives.
The current
bailout extravaganza is applying the postponement of reality
democratically — to the rich as well as the poor, to the
irresponsible as well as to the responsible, to the inefficient as
well as to the efficient. It is a triumph of the non-judgmental
philosophy that we have heard so much about in high-toned circles.
We are told that
the collapse of the Big Three automakers in Detroit would have
repercussions across the country, causing mass layoffs among firms
that supply the automobile makers with parts, and shutting down
automobile dealerships from coast to coast.
A renowned
economist of the past, J.A. Schumpeter, used to refer to progress
under capitalism as “creative destruction” — the replacement of
businesses that have outlived their usefulness with businesses that
carry technological and organizational creativity forward, raising
standards of living in the process.
Indeed, this is
very much like what happened a hundred years ago, when that new
technological wonder, the automobile, wreaked havoc on all the forms
of transportation built up around horses.
For thousands of
years, horses had been the way to go, whether in buggies or royal
coaches, whether pulling trolleys in the cities or plows on the
farms. People had bet their futures on something with a track record
of reliable success going back many centuries.
Were all these
people to be left high and dry? What about all the other people who
supplied the things used with horses — oats, saddles, horse shoes
and buggies? Wouldn’t they all go falling like dominoes when horses
were replaced by cars?
Unfortunately for
all the good people who had in good faith gone into all the various
lines of work revolving around horses, there was no compassionate
government to step in with a bailout or a stimulus package.
They had to face
reality, right then and right there, without even a postponement.
Who would have
thought that those who displaced them would find themselves in a
similar situation a hundred years later?
Actually the
automobile industry is not nearly in as bad a situation now as the
horse-based industries were then. There is no replacement for the
automobile anywhere on the horizon. Nor has the public decided to do
without cars indefinitely.
While Detroit’s
Big Three are laying off thousands of workers, Toyota is hiring
thousands of workers right here in America, where a substantial share
of all our Toyotas are manufactured.
Will this save
Detroit or Michigan? No.
Detroit and
Michigan have followed classic liberal policies of treating
businesses as prey, rather than as assets. They have helped kill the
goose that lays the golden eggs. So have the unions. So have
managements that have gone along to get along.
Toyota, Honda and
other foreign automakers are not heading for Detroit, even though
there are lots of experienced automobile workers there. They are
avoiding the rust belts and the policies that have made those places
rust belts.
A bailout of
Detroit’s Big Three would be only the latest in the postponements
of reality. As for automobile dealers, they can probably sell Toyotas
just as easily as they sold Chevvies. And Toyotas will require just
as many tires per car, as well as other parts from automobile parts
suppliers.
Thomas Sowell is a Senior Fellow at The Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California. He has published dozens of books on economics, education, race, and other topics. His most recent book is Economic Facts and Fallacies, published in December 2007.
