Power Pollutes

Here’s a letter that I sent in June to the New York Post:

George Will is understandably frightened by the administration’s and Congress’s massive infusion of politics into the operation of the U.S. auto industry – and he is understandably angered by these politicians’ blatant lies about how they wish to keep politics out of the operation of this industry (“G.M.: That’s ‘Gov’t Mandate’ to you,” June 8). Unfortunately, the “leaders” of this industry invited this cancerous intrusion by seeking handouts.

How sad it is that America has too few persons who really, deeply agree with the poet Shelley that

“The man
Of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys.
Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate’er it touches.”*

Sincerely,

Donald J. Boudreaux

* Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Queen Mab” (1813).

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