With passage of HCR38 on Thursday, a new message of opposition was circulated among the Sussex County republicans who opposed the resolution as it was written.
Several members said it was wrong for state government to force two companies to do business.
That is an interesting claim that bears some scrutiny.
Is it wrong for a government to impose the people’s will upon a business?
At first, it seems to go against every libertarian grain deeply embedded within the American psyche. We fought for our right to be free of excess government, and we continually fight that battle to preserve those rights.
If we broke away from our mother country over a tax imposed on our consumption of tea……….how can we justify government intervention into the give and take of what goes on within our businesses?
Now forgive me for making a jump here……but to get to the right answer, we need first to determine who, or what, our government is?
If we take the assumption that our government is an entity imposed upon me by another who has goals differing drastically in a direction from mine, then that government’s intervention could by a stretch, be considered inappropriate at worst, and un-American at best……
The opposing point of view is that if our government represents us, and the businesses it oversees, is a representative of another who has goals differing drastically from the direction of mine, then……we have the opposite effect. Lack of intervention would be deemed inappropriate at worst, as well as un-American at best.
So to get to the essence of the question, we have to first figure out who is more representative of our needs and wishes………………
Lets do so by poking around this scenario.
Obviously I should be allowed to charge citizens $5 for a gallon of gas. If you have no choice but to buy from me, then good for me….bad for you. This economic philosophy is often spouted by those who contemporarily have the economic upper hand, and is politcally embodied by whichever party of the time, chooses to stake the ground those upper handed stand upon, and grovel for their crumbs.
But failing any competition, you take it on the chin every time you buy my gas. You are paying an excess charge just to make me rich. As you suffer, the entire economy also suffers by siphoning away monies needed elsewhere, to expand my pockets. I have no incentive to abstain from hurting you. (Hmmm…why stop at $5. I think I’ll raise it to $6)
For our government (which is supposed to represent YOU) to sit idly by and do nothing because of a silly political principal, results in a failure to do its job in representing you, the very people who elected it to govern.
So the underlying principle that needs to be settled in order to appropriately answer this question, is this: Is our government elected to represent us…….or our businesses and corporations.
As all should do whenever such questions arise, we should turn our attention to our founding document. In this case, I think attention to the Constitution is appropriate. It begins with “WE, the People.” What It does not say is “We, the Corporation.” In fact, corporations are mentioned nowhere in the original Constitutional document. It would be wise to remember that people vote in every election, whereas, corporations do not.
Therefore when our government has to choose between the corporation and a person, one would always expect the cause of a person to trump that of a corporation. The only leg a corporation has to stand on in this country is …….( and we owe Alexander Hamilton kudos for bringing this up), that the economic well being of a corporation often benefits many far and beyond the one or two individuals in the process of opposing them…………….
Bottom line is this. That in this great country, “WE, the People” should always have our wants, wishes, and wills respected. The only time we get into trouble, is where various factions of ourselves, have opposing wants, wishes, and wills. As a nation, we circumvented this problem by outlining clearly, that indecision would be settled throughout our future, by a flat out vote. Whoever won the majority, would decide the issue.
90% of Delawareans want an offshore wind farm. The majority is obvously there. Delmarva, who by lot, circumstance, and history, happens to be the entitity that currently supplies our power, does not want that windfarm…….
So we vote.
The majority wins.
End of controversy.
In God we Trust……..
12 comments
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April 13, 2008 at 6:08 am
Alan Coffey
silly political principal ? Ouch.
If you WANT it, pay for it. Simple, not silly.
April 13, 2008 at 7:59 am
kavips
I don’t know if you want to hear this, but as I was typing this earlier this afternoon, and typed over “Alexander Hamilton” when I realized I hadn’t heard from you in a while……”This should wake him up” I smiled to myself.”
Apparently it did…….:)
April 13, 2008 at 8:05 am
kavips
The political principal to which I was referring, was laissez faire, which is only “silly” when it is applied to monopolies. Sorry if my previous point was unclear.
April 14, 2008 at 6:42 am
Alan Coffey
Thank you for the clarification.
I am getting back in the swing after a shitty beginning of the year. Thanks. Oh, I am not opposed to paying for it, I just want honesty about it.
April 14, 2008 at 6:59 am
kavips
Alan, I must still be missing something………because I am having trouble seeing how your comment coincides with my post………Pay for “what” and honesty about “what” appear to be the two stumbling blocks for me, and I am unsure how they relate to having a small cabal denying an entire state, access to a cheap service or good, that shall benefit them greatly.. Can you please provide some insight?
April 14, 2008 at 7:43 am
kavips
Maria, you have Amendment 1’s vote tally representing the tally for HCR38. But if one clicks the link you provide to your original post, the correct one (25) is listed over there. The tally should read 25 to 11.
Small point for a really great post. Keep up the good work.
April 15, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Alan Coffey
K;
Sorry for the delay in answering. The thing that bugs me about the wind power debate is that it is being forced on private industry. Yes, if we are to tolerate monopolies, we need to regulate their actions. But I worry that next time that cabal might direct DelMarVa to buy power from say…. The Global Cabal Power Company.
This power can be used for good or ill.
Given that, I think we just need to be honest about what we are doing and honest about the costs. DelMarVa is now to be a politically directed entity to a degree not apparent to me before. I wonder if the management and shareholders understood their role in this way.
The industry is coming under increased political control. Will (can?) the politicians take responsibility for the effects of that control? Is it even possible for pols to take responsibility? What would it mean for pols to “take responsibility”?
As for price, I expect BWW to have only a minimal impact. Marginally higher initially and marginally cheaper over the long haul. Will it solve the long term power problem downstate? Probably not. Will it help? In the short run, yes.
This project would be a tremendous “feather” in Delaware’s cap. But we still need to address further generation capacity to replace the coal smoke belching machine and/or address the transmission line problem. Either way, the growth at the shore needs more power. I would love to solve the power problem with wind, tidal and whatever else makes sense (nuclear)? But I worry about the level of control by politicians. It turns out, no surprise really, that I don’t trust them.
April 16, 2008 at 8:07 am
kavips
Which is exactly why Bluewater Wind should go through. If we have two companies competing for our business, our prices will remain lower.
We know we need power to sustain ourselves over the next twenty five years. It is whether we want to take out a fixed mortgage and pay less for Bluewater Wind, or take a chance with the ARM being offered by Delmarva
It’s that simple. And we have hindsight now as to what happens with ARM’s when the grace period is over.
April 16, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Alan Coffey
Uh, K. Those were teaser rate mortgages, not ARM’s. I know, small point. Sorry to pick nits.
January 8, 2009 at 12:58 pm
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