Misconstruing History, with Professor Biden
Recently, Vice President Joe Biden told a roomful of Democratic contributors in New York City — who had paid $1000 for the privilege of hearing him — that:
Every single great idea that has marked the 21st century, the 20th century and the 19th century has required government vision and government incentive.
…
In the middle of the Civil War you had a guy named Lincoln paying people $16,000 for every 40 miles of track they laid across the continental United States.
…
No private enterprise would have done that for another 35 years.
Perhaps on another occasion the vice president can describe the “government vision and government incentive” that was “required” for the ideas of, for starters, Darwin, Marx, Freud, and Einstein. Of course, the vice president might simply have meant (it is often difficult to determine his meaning from his words) that every government idea requires government vision, but that tautology would seem to be even emptier than most campaign pronouncements that strain for profundity.
In any event, let us limit our concern now to the one idea he mentioned, the transcontinental railroad. That project, though undoubtedly grand, may have been a more revealing precursor of the fruits of Obama administration public policy than Professor Biden realizes.
“Recently, Vice President Joe Biden told a roomful of Democratic contributors in New York City — who had paid $1000 for the privilege of hearing him…”
Biden is either lying with intent to deceive, like any con-artist or he is completely delusional and unaware of the fact. With 86 seemingly guaranteed electoral votes already on the table for 2012; Biden is encouraged, so are his stateist buddies at every level. Those that think these guys are going to “compromise” are delusional too.
We better be praying for a miracle and a complete intervention otherwise…..
Maybe the pyramids were built the same way. Who cares? I like ‘em.
I have no idea why this even surprises me.
It’s just another one of those things that we intuitively know, but can’t actually prove until someone does the research like this article does.
The current Vice President seems to continually point out that the only difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits!
Private industry can always do a better, more efficient, job than the government can. They have to because, if they don’t, they go out of business. And the whole point is to STAY in business, right? The government doesn’t have to worry about staying in business because there are always people around to pay the bills, i.e., the American taxpayer.
But what if, one day, the American taxpayer simply refuses to pay? The socialists in Washington don’t really understand that they’re playing with fire here, a type of fire that could bring down our government. If Washington continues to tax people to death, continues its reckless spending, and continues its irrisponsible growth, then people will simply refuse to pay. The rich will either leave this country or hide their funds in other countries and the middle class will simply grow the underground economy, paying for everything in cash and cutting all government agencies (Federal, state, and local) out of the tax loop.
Don’t think it can happen? It happens every day in European countries, especially in southern European countries. The rich hide their money in Swiss bank accounts and the middle class avoid a lot of taxes by paying in cash. That leaves only the poor to demand even more social-welfare services with less and less tax money to pay for it. Greece is a stunning example of this and shows what we have to look forward to if we don’t get our financial house in order. I really hope that the new Conservative Congress can start reversing this trend in government. If not, we will become like Greece in a few years. Count on it.
LibertyShip46: I am in complete sympathy with your hope for taxpayer revolt. However, it is wishful thinking to believe that the rich will flee or that they will even care. The problem is that we do not tax wealth in this country. We tax income and to a lesser extent, capital gain. There are hundreds of ways for the wealthy to avoid increases in their wealth from being seen by the IRS as income. There are hundreds of ways to defer capital gain or to keep it from being recognized at all.
In spite of their rhetoric, Statists and their unions know that they cannot abuse the wealthy and are in a tacit but very real and unholy alliance with them to ensure that government and entitlements will be paid for disproportionately by the working, professional and small-business-owning middle class. This is accomplished by fees, income taxes, sales taxes, money supply inflation, low interest rates on savings and depressed wages due to regulatory job opportunity suppression. None of these things really matter to the wealthy. Why would they?
Imagine if we developed a system where everyone paid a progressive percentage of their net worth every year to support the government (we are already heading to situation where you cannot hide any asset from the IRS). I think support for the Progressive agenda would dissappear from Hollywood, Wall Street and every local enclave of liberalism usually led by the resident wealthy.
See: Estate Taxes
What about all the failed, expensive government initiatives such as the “public housing” program of the mid 20th century, which was followed a few decades later by a more successful program to destroy those crime ridden slums?
Much of Surowiecki’s account is distorted. The starting point is correct, in that no investor would undertake the venture, but the basic motivation was always political — the need to bind the West Coast to the nation during a time of fission.
The enterprise was set up as it was (with the UP paying Credit Mobilier for the actual construction) because of the corporate structure the government forced on the UP, which would have allowed later investors in the UP a free call option on earlier investors.The investment was no sure sure thing, even with the government support, as one can readily ascertain by looking at the price of UP stock at the time when CM stock was being distributed to the UP shareholders. Best estimates are that the investors made a good return, but probably not enough to pay for the risk.
As for the bribery, rather than the UP bribing innocent legislators, it is better seen as corrupt legislators exploiting their power to loot the enterprise. The scandal was largely an artifact of politics, as the “broad-shouldered [Oakes] Ames,” as Lincoln called him when he asked Ames to undertake the UP, was made into a scapegoat.
It is time this founding myth of the Progressive Movement was laid to rest.
I am amused each time I hear the Libbies discuss the stupidity of Palin, O’Donnell, or other conservatives. The Libbies are themselves so stupid that they don’t recognize the stupidity of Plugs Bite-Me. Dear Lord! This goon is the vice-president????
Annie, here’s a little more proof. Every time the libbies knock Sarah or O’Donnell I always think of these dumb Democrats:
http://www.hootervillegazette.com/dumbdemocrats.html
No private enterprise would have done that for another 35 years.
Not to pick on the math skills of the man who claims to be “second in line to the President” but the the first transcontinental railroad road was completed in 1869 while James J. Hill’s Great Northern, famously built without fed aid, was completed in 1893.
Joe, 1,893 – 1,869 = 24.
Just to help you out.
What is really funny is that there are those who said that Christine O’Donnell didn’t have the brainpower to be a senator from Delaware.
BTW, unlike the other transcontinental railroads, the Great Northern turned out to be a pretty good investment avoiding going into receivership in the Panic of 1893.
Biden is proof that a mouth can work without any connection to a thought process. He speaks as if the fact that he can read something makes it true. Delaware should be embarrassed at the performance of their former Senator, and the Democrats should hide in shame at making this man first in line to the Presidency.
I guess Joe Biden never heard of the Great Northern Railway. Here is a wikipedia link for him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern_Railway_%28U.S.%29
Biden is a national embarrassment! If they ever sculpted a national monument a la Mt. Rushmore for idiots, his likeness would be up there first! Pray for obumma’s good health; Biden’s in the OO waiting room!
It’s probably saved him already… LOL. Biden is such an idiot, a smooth talking one to be sure, but still, he would probably do more damage to the country by accident than BO is doing on purpose. Oh wait. BO would never damage the country on purpose. I’m sorry for even suggesting such a stupid idea. Right!
Oh c’mon, although Joe Biden certainly has his faults, like all of us do, he is still a pretty good, old guy. He is a hawk, too. I can remember times when he pursuaded other Democrats to vote with Republicans on legislation that other Democrats had flatly refused to vote on previously, like, for example, authorization of Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1991/1992 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Also, he has always been a moderate, and somtimes even a conservative, not a liberal, who, presumably, accepted the job of VP to keep Obama in check as best he could, knowing Joe. Knowing Joe, also, he probably would have preferred to have remained a Senator. If you knew anything about politics, you would know that Joe has always been well liked and respected not just by his constituents, but by members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, too. So trash Obama if you like, but cut Biden some slack. And BTW, Joe is no dummy. He’s laid back, but very savvy. (Argh!!! I can’t believe I’m defending a Democrat, but fair is fair.)
Geezuz Brian. Give it a rest. Your posts are as obnoxious as Praetorian’s and Joseph’s, only dumber. Just STFU.
Oh lookie, Brian, that gay girlie-boy is stalking you again.
It’s that, or it could be a classic case of penis envy, ya think?
Or it could be both, if you know what I mean.
The construction of the transcontinental rail road was undertaken in extraordinary times. I have seen no indication of Lincoln’s reasoning, however, in his effort to preserve the Union, and thereby the Constitution, it would not be reasonable that he thought the project was both strategic and symbolic binding of the nation. As far as brain-dead Biden if you expect sense from him you are delusional. Enjoy the comedy, ignore the expense. We’ll take care of that in two years.
Let’s not forget the part that Biden left out. That being that government “paid” (subsidized) for the railroad only so that it could transport its troops and supplies to the “front” much faster. It was a selfish motive. No different than government motives today.
Looking forward, it also believed it could spread its influence and control across a much vaster territory with such a ‘tool.’
It was in the “best interest” of both parties. And, to this very day, railroads and government are inextricably tied together at very fundamental levels.
Some government motives are selfish, while others are political. For example, before the financial crises, Spain was subsidizing its windmill industry to the tune of $250,000 per worker employed. After the crises there were thousands of layoffs and the industry crashed when government money was withheld. The U.S. government is currently subsidizing General Electric’s windmill, solar and biofuel operations to the tune of about $600 million per year. If this new energy legislation ever passes, there are other “green” industries that will profit from Federal subsidies, including increases to G.E. The ethanol industry is being propped up by the feds. Use of ethanol is mandated in gasoline. Cap and trade legislation, which does not have much chance of passing in the near future, would have enriched many of the “green” industries in which Al Gore is heavily invested. These are all private enterprises that would fail without Federal subsidies because of the limited market for their products or their higher costs when competing against coal or oil. But the government keeps telling us that subsidizing these industries will create new green jobs and wean us off of our “oil addiction”. It’s not only Obama’s Democrats, but Bush Republicans that got us involved in this farce. The only losers are the taxpayers.
For excellent historical material on the railroads of the 19th century (and other business ventures of the period), read “The Myth of the Robber Barons” by Burton Folsom.
For a more detailed exposition on government involvement in the railroads, see Ayn Rand in “Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal”, and her essay, “Notes on the History of American Free Enterprise”. She discusses in more detail how government enabled cronyism and corruption (especially the “Big Four” in California, a state that lives with that legacy even today, as this last election proves), and how the Great Northern succeeded without government help. As she summed up,
“It is not a matter of accidental personalities, of ‘dishonest businessmen’ or ‘dishonest legislators’. The dishonesty is inherent in and created by the system. So long as a government holds the power of economic control, it will necessarily create a special ‘elite’, an ‘aristocracy of pull’ [see Atlas Shrugged], it will attract the corrupt type of politician into the legislature, it will work to the advantage of the dishonest businessman, and will penalize and, eventually, destroy the honest and the able.
“…the idea of possibility of an uncontrolled economy has been entirely forgotten and is now being deliberately ignored. … The issue is not between pro-business controls and pro-labor controls, but **between controls and freedom**. It is not the Big Four against the welfare state, but the Big Four and the welfare state on one side–against J.J. Hill [creator of the Great Northern Railroad] and every honest worker on the other. Government control of the economy, no matter in whose behalf, has been the source of all the evils in our industrial history–and the solution is laissez-faire capitalism, i.e., the abolition of any and all forms of government intervention in production and trade, **the separation of State and Economics**, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of Church and State.”
Emphasis and interjections are mine.
Reading the post and comments I have had thoughts that most of you, maybe all, will find foolish but I feel that I should express those thoughts. No one is thinking that the Lord might have been giving direction. Read about Joseph with its context. The plan started at least with Abraham and ran through Moses. We see human nature at work when the brothers sold Joseph into Egypt. They never dreamed that they were following God’s plan.
There is a lot of history here that I can’t expand on in the space available. Some Mennonites made a deal with Russia and went to live there and some prospered, others were very poor. Russia would not renew the deal when the time came so they were looking for a new home. The Santa Fe, building across Kansas had land that needed farmers and these Mennonites were excellent farmers so a deal was made. They brought their red Russian wheat with them. In the meantime a blight was wiping out the European wheat but the red Russian was immune which put the United States as a major producer of wheat.
Also we were coming into a need for such transportation that was not even imagined so when the time came we were already prepared. Was this man’s doing or the Lord’s doing. I hadn’t thought about it in this way till I started reading and I am not saying at this point that this is the way it worked. I do think we need to stop and consider if the Lord did have a hand in it and I am of the mind that he did. Note in the story of Joseph how it took some 400 years to complete that process. As I said, there is far too much here to comment on but turn your thoughts loose and consider. You do not have to believe.
I have another take on Joe Biden. He believes that people are too ignorant to know things. That is a dangerous (to him) idea because we can nearly fast as you can turn on a television set we can turn on the internet and check it out. Mr. Biden get into the 21st century and check your facts before you run your mouth. Sheeesh
He believes that people are too ignorant to know things.
OK, but you have to give him props for practicing what he preaches.
The Demoncrats are increasingly reliant on their collective view that the Amerivan electorate are a bunch of dumb, hick, rubes who’ll believe anything they say, the dumber and more outrageously false, the better. How else can Biden be allowed loose, unattended and without a teleprompter. Thing is he appears to actually believe what comes out; remember the great wisdom and financial acumen of this charismatic, silver haired, silver tongued “oracle” when he said, with a straight face, and I’m paraphrasing, “that we have to spend more money in order to solve the budget deficit problem.” Yes! He knows how outrageously convoluted it sounds so, according to the usual intellectual guidelines, why it must be true. I immediately went out, refinanced my house, bought a Maserati and maxed out three credit cards. Still waiting though for that to work and have you ever tried living in a sports car; with the Repo guys on your case??? Could good old Joe have been that full of crap?
The Transcontinental Railroad made a then-future Presiident fairly wealthy. Abraham Lincoln worked for the railroads securing land rights across the country. Not all the deals Lncoln made with farmers and towns would be what we might today call kosher. He was a lawyer, after all.
Biden touts government sponsorship of projects by pointing to a successful project like the Transcontinental Railroad. He might also have cited another successful government sponsored project, the Panama Canal. What Biden omits is government sponsored failures like the U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corporation, Am Trak, the supersonic transport aircraft, and a vast number of unsuccessful weapons like the XB-70 bomber. The U.S., after two devastating crashes, is finally giving up on the Space Shuttle. Nor are all the failures federal. Look at the money local governments lose on government sponsored bus and rail lines, and tax-subsidized convention centers and stadiums. When technology progressed to the point where powered flying machines became possible, who made the first successful flight? Not Professor Langley, curator of the Smithsonian Institution, not even with a million-dollar (in today’s dollars) subsidy from Congress. Instead, it was a couple of self-financed bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio.
What the left fails to realize is that there is a crucial difference between construction of the transcontinental railroad and various private initiatives. Construction of a transcontinental railroad was important for national security reasons at the time.
California was a state, but it was lightly populated and nearly defenseless against a foreign invasion, if a major foreign power tried to launch one. It would have taken months for troops to get from the eastern US to California by foot or horseback to repel an invasion by which time it would have been too late. The transcontinental railroad allowed troops to be transported there in days rather than months, and that made it worth the inefficiencies inherent in such an endeavor.
Thanks to the author, the comments stimulated by the article are almost all interesting and informative as well. Would that we had more writers who use the facts to draw out the readership to expand on the topic at hand. So often our politicians spout rhetoric but rarely reach back into history to provide an accurate account of their already preconceived ideas.
Luckily, it appears that American private enterprise continues to flourish while the politicians try to undermine it at every turn. No wonder Ayn Rand is so popular here and abroad. Our very way of life is being threatened by overreaching government and underachieving inept politicians.
Excellent takedown. And Rosenberg’s timely reminder goes fully as much for the Interstate Highway System a century later, though too many present-day governmental teat-suckers (on the left AND right) would prefer one not bring that up.
The mail contracts were what kept the passenger trains running, they paid for the cost of the operations and the upkeep on the rails, after they were taken away the passenger trains were dropped and the downtown business districts of the big cities failed. What no one considered was that they people in the small towns were riding the trains into the big cities to go shopping and then returning home at night, it wasn’t the citizens of the big cities that shopped down town it was the citizens in the small towns. Since the lose of the passenger trains the down town business districts have failed, mail service went down hill and many small towns have died because there was no easy way for people to commute to the big cities.
Biden and railroads? Forget taht. I want to now why Obama is spending $200 million per day to visit India. he has 34 of our warships following him around And don’t’ tell me it’s been debunked. I heard it straight from Rush and Sean and Laura ingrahm and Drudge and World Net Daily and a bunch of other TRULY credible sources. And they haven’t said anything about it being debunked.
Face it, when Fox and friends say it, you can take it to the bank. No questions asked. Now is not the time to start questioning the motives of the people who engineered our conservative rebirth. It’s not like they have anything to gain by just making up stuff like the libs do.
I think you should take what Beck says to heart. Check everything. You may be right but maybe not. Taking anyone’s word for granted is asking for trouble in the long run. And even if they are honest they could be mistaken or fed erroneous information.
So, when Glenn says he wants to murder michael Moore with his own hands, is he kidding? I thought he really meant it. I mean, how do you check something like that?
Can you believe that THAT is all that that lame dimwit has? Showman Glenn Beck and the 200 million dollars a day story from an undiscosed source in India? Pathetic.
Well, then, you’ll be happy to explain the $200 million per day lie so relentlessly pushed by Fox and friends, right? Go ahead, explain it. Tell mw how it doe4sn’t indict right wing media as the utterly dishonest ideological political hacks that they are.
“Time and again, experience has shown that while private enterprise, carried on in an environment of open competition, delivers the best products and services at the best price, government intervention stifles initiative, subsidizes inefficiency, and raises costs. But if we have difficulty learning from history, it is often because our true economic history is largely hidden from us. We would be hard pressed to find anything about Vanderbilt’s success or Collins’s government-backed failure in the steamship business by examining the conventional history textbooks or taking a history course at most colleges or universities. The information simply isn’t included.”
The three greatest innovations of the 20th Century, airplanes, automobiles, and motion pictures, were all begat by the private enterprise.
Biden is what the eastern snob wrongly called Reagan, “an amiable dunce”,
and yet, he has a diploma from some prestigious university.
I wish, the next time a columnist decides to write a phillipic against Palin or O’Donnell, that they would revisit the multitude of beyond stupid utterances by Biden and Obama, and then try to find anything by their targets as numerous or stupid.
I live in NYC. You should see the mess the MTA has made of my stop on my train and it’s taking them forever to widen the train station (At least a year and it’s still going on) Private business probably could have done it much faster.