Joe Biden: The Vision

Via Popehat, Joe Biden declares his adoration for government vision.

“Every single great idea that has marked the 21st century, the 20th century and the 19th century has required government vision and government incentive."

We can probably all agree that government involvement has helped to spur on certain industries or, more likely, certain businesses within certain industries. But what Joe doesn't seem to recognize is all of the potential advances that could have been made by unfettered private industry had not federal and state governments and their regulatory agencies made it more difficult for people to enter the industries in question.

How many new entry drug companies are being launched today? How many new automobile companies spring up these days when a century ago there were dozens that entered the market? Does the crippling cost of regulation keep potential genius level competitors on the sidelines in these and other industries?

If so, has a cure for cancer gone needlessly undiscovered? Has a viable sixty mile per gallon car died on the machine shop floor of an underfunded engineer?

Joe also neglects to mention government blessed domestic industries that have failed so completely that once regulated and incentivized they require millions or billions of dollars every year in taxpayer subsidies to stay afloat. Ethanol anyone? I don't know about you, but I cannot wait to see how this whole "green jobs" for the sake of "green jobs" business turns out.

And what about the dismal performance of once successful industries that now falter because of a special blend of government incompetence, bad policy, and the unintended consequences of benevolent regulation? Housing anyone? Banking? Timber? Furniture? Education? Gulf oil? The automobile? The internal combustion engine? Peanuts? Mohair? Tourism? You name it.

Joe Biden is a big believer in big government. He is such a believer that he is unable to even curb his enthusiasm in the face of a government caused worst economic collapse in nearly one hundred years.

If government has such great vision Joe, why didn't it see a [heavily subsidized] freight train coming?