Is it too late to become a French socialist? Tom Smith

As I enjoy telling my classes, years ago I worked on a series of deals for a big French company that was partly owned by the French government.  It was your classic French setup.  The CEO and top officers of this company were classic French technocrats, graduates of grandes ecoles in Paris, quantitatively oriented, smart and tough.  They took the metro to work.  When they saw how American corporate officers lived, the private jets and hunting lodges, they could not wait to buy the American companies and join the fun.  But before they were corrupted, they were models of civic responsibility.  If you had to have semi-public bureaucrats running a big industrial company, these would be the guys.

Is it a good system?  No, it's terrible.  Inefficient and all that.  But now consider what Congress is considering.  (via here.) An oversight board for GM run by Congress?  Are you out of your mind?  Somehow the unfathomably inefficient US auto industry when mated with the bafflingly corrupt Congress will result in something better?  If we are going to go socialist, could we at least do it in a semi-intelligent way?  Could we at least imitate Old Europe and not Latin America?  Could we at least decline in a decorus manner and not explode into a horrific pork fandango?  The idea is to become socialist and die slowly of ossifcation, not glut yourself to death in an orgy of incompetence.

Barney Frank really is the most dangerous man in America.  How soon and how hard Obama steps on him is going to be the measure of his presidency.  Frank is just a flat out crony-corporatist-socialist, a plunder puppy, who wants his hands on the economy so he and his pals can run it out of Washington. This is not high minded Harvard School of Public Health style socialism.  This is really bad stuff.

Comments

[Ralph]

FWIW I agree with those who are opposed to a government bailout of the American automotive industry. Not that anyone really cares. Apparently the UAW pays its bills and Congress will deliver promised services.

I felt the same way about the housing and banking mess.

In all these messes the stones that set off the ripples that grew into these tsunamis were cast by Congress. As usual.

I won't bore you with a rant about this. You can do your own homework if this is of any interest to you. I will say that in the normal coarse of a con artist-sucker relationship the sucker usually, at the very least, gets an education and the confidence artist eventually gets caught. In our relationship with our government, however, we never learn, do we? We actually go back again and again, almost begging to be fleeced one more time.

I don't blame the bankers, the stock market, the so-called fat cats, or the mortgage companies all that much. People are often greedy and short-sighted. I blame the meddlesome, power drunk magical thinkers who set up the con; who create the conditions that make these situations almost inevitable and the suckers, us, who uncritically believe the headlines and the campaign slogans.

[Jonathan]

Obama needs to do something equivalent to firing the air controllers in order to establish that he has some substance. Otherwise Congressional and world leaders are going to walk all over him. Unfortunately, Obama, like Bill Clinton, may be too weak personally to pull off something like this. He may not even realize that it is necessary.

[dearieme]

"how American corporate officers lived, the private jets and hunting lodges,...": which is also corrupt, is it not? They take advantage of flaws in company law to pillage the shareholders.

[Tom]

Stepping on Barney Frank is dangerous business in these times less you be accused of being a homophobe by the "No-on-8" crowd.

Is he corrupt and dangerous? Absolutely. Does it have anything to do with his sexuality? Not a bit. Will that stop his cronies from using that excuse as a defense against critics? Are you kidding...

[Hogarth]

which is also corrupt, is it not?

Did you just stop reading at the end of that sentence?? Because, you know, right there after the point where you stopped reading and started writing is this:

"but before they were corrupted,"

[Andre Kenji]

1-) There are several privatized toll roads in Latin America. There are ten major highways serving the city of São Paulo. ALL of them are privatized or going to be. Things like the Big Dig are becoming a relic of the past here.

Mexico, Chile, Colombia and even Argentina sucessfully have done projects like that.

2-) Sorry to point out: we know the winners of election four HOURS after the polls are closed, not four weeks later. And we don´t need "recounts", even if the result is close.

3-) There are individual tax credits for health care and private education.

Sure, there are several problems(Yes, I think that Brazil SHOULD privatized it´s state owned banks, the Kirchner couple is destroying Argentina). But you should be careful while pointing out to Latin America.

[Lawmom]

Funny, I've been thinking since Obama won that I should move to France or Montreal. If I'm going to be a socialist, I should at least get the benefit of better food and more experienced socialist politicians. Mmmm, Paris in the spring.

[MarkJ]

Barney Frank strikes me as the kind of individual who, when meeting a prospective boyfriend, doesn't look for size in the *ahem* "usual place."

Nope, when Barney goes looking for "size" he looks at...the bulge in the guy's wallet pocket.

[Tennwriter]

Snails or tamales? I'll go with tamales. No, I'm not shallow. Why do you ask?

[John Stephens]

"They take advantage of flaws in company law to pillage the shareholders."

Corporate shareholders at least have the option to sell out of a corrupt company. Where do I go to sell my stake in Washington, Inc.? And who'd be fool enough to buy it?