Will 6/11/09

Recovery, Meet Sobriety

My take on George Will's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: This time we can sum up the entire essay in just two quotes from Calvin Coolidge (included in Will's column).

Quote:

"If all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves."

"It is a great advantage to a president, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man."

My Views: Part of the push for greater government control is the idea of those in power that they are great people. Thus, economic decisionmaking is made politically, instead of through a more rational decisions of the markets. I like Will's phrase "creative destruction" of inefficient companies.

And there's this section on the health care front: if people were to live better, the major diseases would become rare:

• treatment of wounds caused by violence;


• - caused by vehicle accidents ;


• AIDS caused by irresponsible sexual behavior;


• corony artery disease caused by a number of bad behaviors ;


• lung cancer caused by smoking;


• Type 2 diabetes caused by obesity.;

Just listing these constitutes an indictment of society's misplaced dependence on government.

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George Will almost didn't make it as a syndicated columnist. His style was considered too erudite for a general audience.

Whatever one thinks of his views, read his work for use of language and for how he marshals facts and uses logic.

Here's his Wiki bio.

His latest book is at the right.