Life is Better--Why?

Christopher Caldwell has written an amusing article for those of us old enough to remember the 70's, when consumer products were more dangerous and our homes were not yet jammed with an overabundance of electronic gadgets. 

Why has life gotten better, cheaper and safer?  Is it free-market capitalism?  Or is it due to liberal nanny-state overregulation? 

Is it that Reagan put an end to screw-you socialism, with the shoddy workmanship that was its hallmark?

Or is it that those hippies who now design our appliances and clog our statute books with regulation put an end to soulless, every-man-for-himself capitalism?

Is it that our own culture is, actually, deep down, as anti-humanistic as people used to say, and that the Chinese, even in the aftermath of Maoism, have a better sense of human needs?

Or are today's appliances designed for the benefit of those who lost a limb on older models back in the 1970s? (TWS - Rage Against the Machine)

A Conservative Take on the Military Industrial Complex

Michael Goldfarb casts a jaundiced eye on the military-industrial complex, wondering what really scuttled the F-22 program.

This is instructive. Especially coming from Rightwing Neocon bastion, The Weekly Standard. Just because we're conservatives doesn't mean we're kneejerk cheerleaders for the defense industry. Of course we shake our heads at the left's demonization of the industry that has kept us safe for the past century, but like any entity that sells things to the US government, they bear watching.

As Sarah Palin said about her tough negotiating with the oil industry on behalf of her state, "They have their job to do and I have mine." No demonization, no capitulation, just brass tacks bargaining on behalf of the taxpayer.

If General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin had their way, we would be spilling over with ships, fighter planes and impractically vast arrays of armaments. This is not a criticism. They are in business to make money, and government is in charge of protecting the country.

Anyway, Goldfarb's article provides an interesting peek inside military procurement, where political ideology takes a back seat to parochial interests and political contributions. In the DC sausage factory, military necessity is often an accidental afterthought, and the military rarely gets exactly what it really needs. Ever resourceful, the men and women in uniform put what they get to good use.

Are you a fan of some traditional conservative cause like defense? Then cheer every opportunity to shine a spotlight on it, for sunshine is the best disinfectant. It prevents the discrediting rot of corruption. Casting a skeptical eye, even upon the objects of our affection, is very conservative thing to do.

Weekly Standard - Michael Goldfarb