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.