Obama, We’re Not on Our Own
Yesterday, Sen. Barack Obama launched the canard that Sen. John McCain wanted to advance radical atomism:
“George Bush called this the ownership society, but what he really meant was ‘you’re-on-your-own’ society,” Obama told a town hall meeting here, tying McCain to a president whose popularity is low. “John McCain apparently wants to continue this.”
I think it’s cleaver a Hot Air reader thinks Obama snagged a line from Clinton. He does have that habit.
I also think Sen. Audacity should be more honest about McCain. The Arizona Senator always talks about “a cause greater.” He says it so much it grates on my individualist’s ears. If he can pay attention to the rhetoric of Clinton and Deval Patrick Obama could certainly listen to his GOP opponent.
I’m more interested in Obama’s typical liberal understanding of free markets and the economy. Any economic transaction requires at least two parties: the buyer and the seller. The seller needs to offer some good or service the buyer thinks is worth buying. In a long string of transactions covering the exchange of commodities to steel producitons to office supplies to consulting services buyers and sellers are needed. For whatever reason if a buyer isn’t willing to fork over some money for a good or service then the seller is out of luck and must move on.
At the economy’s most basic level cooperation and interdependence is the norm. As an economy gets more complex, more dense with economic actors, that interdependency increases. A few years back the Asian contagion’s effects hit the U.S. economy. In the financial markets the Federal Reserve felt the tight weave of credit and securities trading around Bear Stearns required it to assist in its sale to JP Morgan. The ties of exchange and capital have brought all Americans closer together.
Obama is wrong about the economy. The only one who can truly “go-it-alone” is the Robinson Crusoe character in introductory economics textbooks. Our economy is nothing like that.
I’ll have more later on Obama’s economic speech in Manhattan.
“Obama: Beware ‘You’re on Your Own’ Society”
