Here’s a letter sent to the New York Times:
Bob Herbert, with his self-righteousness on full peacock-like display, calls for “the creation of an independent agency with strong powers of enforcement to protect consumers from exploitation by banks, mortgage companies, auto dealers and other purveyors of credit” (“Derailing Help for Consumers,” March 27). The idea that individuals can fend for themselves in competitive markets – for example, by exercising judgment, or by comparing one lender’s terms to those of other lenders – is so passé that Mr. Herbert ignores it.
All ‘Progressives,’ after all, know that ordinary men and women are dumb as dirt and gullible as all get out. So the claim that people who don’t boast Ivy League degrees – or who don’t write for a newspaper that prints all the news that it sees fit – can get on well in life without government-appointed guardian angels to protect them is, to these ‘Progressives,’ a real howler – a knee-slapper so utterly ludicrous that, to take it seriously, is to reveal yourself to be downright inhumane and, even worse, likely a Republican.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
