I don’t know about you, but when I want to invest my money, I don’t go the Department of Energy for advice.
There’s a reason for this. At their best, bureaucracies “lumber on,” to quote one sociologist’s analysis. They are, “by their nature … fitted only for average requirements.” Picking long shots? Not their strong suit.
And a long shot is what the government’s investment in Solyndra surely was. The more emails that are released, the more obvious this becomes. Even savvy folks within the administration knew was that Solyndra was a bad deal.
Yet President Obama says it seemed like a “good bet” at the time.
Why?
Politics. He needed to look good, and the easiest garb to grab was the garb of “green.”
That is, alternative energy — which is said to be our future. Undoubtedly some alternatives will dominate … that is, ones found on the market. The great gales of destructive creation that is the market process will eventually solve our “energy problem” … if only to create a new problem, requiring yet another solution. (In real life, there are rarely “solutions,” only trade-offs.)
There is something obscene in Obama’s “good bet,” for he was betting with other people’s money. Confiscated money.
At the very least, such funds must be treated carefully, not gambled.
To spend otherwise is to sully, for temporary gain, a sacred trust.
Of course, Americans are so used to such trust being desecrated that, sadly, the Solyndra scandal doesn’t quite seem like the enormity it truly is.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Obscene Green”
The new “jobs” bill will cost $234,000 per created job. A relative bargain after the $284,000 per job that the stimulus “jobs” bill cost. Guess Presb IS getting the hang of this.
Solyndra was simply bailing out a political contributor who was about to lose a chunk of change in this bad investment. All of the pretense that it was a was a serious investment is just cover.
You are one of the few who see this as a ‘scandal’. Most people now see it as business as usual. Many have little to no faith in government or the media anymore. Gone are the days when we would feel betrayed. Now we just shrug at the news of insiders enriching themselves at taxpayer expense. It’s business as usual.
I confess I have been a Obama supporter. However, I see myself changing my mind a little at a time.
Unfortunately the Republicans are even worse. Great, we get to chose between bad and worse. Home of the brave, yes. Land of the free, not so much. Today my cup is half empty.