The Virginian Pilot, Big Brother, Liberal Fascism, Paternalism and George McGovern

Believe it or not, George McGovern is now the right wing of the Democrat party. He is even to the right of the Virginian Pilot and the Virginia legislature.

In today's Wall Street Journal he makes an impassioned plea for freedom:

Freedom Means Responsibility

Nearly 16 years ago in these very pages, I wrote that "'one-size-fits all' rules for business ignore the reality of the market place." Today I'm watching some broad rules evolve on individual decisions that are even worse.

Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior. Much paternalist scrutiny has recently centered on personal economics, including calls to regulate subprime mortgages.
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Economic paternalism takes its newest form with the campaign against short-term small loans, commonly known as "payday lending."

With payday lending, people in need of immediate money can borrow against their future paychecks, allowing emergency purchases or bill payments they could not otherwise make. The service comes at the cost of a significant fee -- usually $15 for every $100 borrowed for two weeks. But the cost seems reasonable when all your other options, such as bounced checks or skipped credit-card payments, are obviously more expensive and play havoc with your credit rating.

Anguished at the fact that payday lending isn't perfect, some people would outlaw the service entirely, or cap fees at such low levels that no lender will provide the service. Anyone who's familiar with the law of unintended consequences should be able to guess what happens next.

Researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York went one step further and laid the data out: Payday lending bans simply push low-income borrowers into less pleasant options, including increased rates of bankruptcy. Net result: After a lending ban, the consumer has the same amount of debt but fewer ways to manage it.

Since leaving office I've written about public policy from a new perspective: outside looking in. I've come to realize that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a healthy civil society.

Why do we think we are helping adult consumers by taking away their options? We don't take away cars because we don't like some people speeding. We allow state lotteries despite knowing some people are betting their grocery money. Everyone is exposed to economic risks of some kind. But we don't operate mindlessly in trying to smooth out every theoretical wrinkle in life.

The nature of freedom of choice is that some people will misuse their responsibility and hurt themselves in the process. We should do our best to educate them, but without diminishing choice for everyone else.

Glenn Reynolds notices. But then, he's Libertarian.

McGovern is still a Democrat, of course, so he tries to spread the blame equally over both the “right and the left.” But today the “right” is primarily engaged in fending off the anti-freedom assaults by the “left.”

So with payday lending. Over the drumbeat from the Virginian Pilot and other Liberal do-gooders and nosy parkers the Virginia legislature has decided to put a cap on the rates payday lenders can charge. Now I personally think that going to a payday lender is foolish, just as buying a lottery ticket is foolish, just as running up credit card debt is foolish and just as buying an expensive car to impress the people at the stop light you will never see again is foolish, but I believe in freedom. And that includes the freedom to do foolish things, like take out a payday loan.

And then there is cigarette smoking, a vice I don’t have. But it’s not something that I will forbid other people to do “for their own good.” But again the anti-smoking Nazis are pushing for a ban on smoking in restaurants. Not, mind you, a private ban by restaurant owners but a public – legal – ban which is enforced by people with guns. All in the name of protecting people from “second hand smoke” which in my opinion is a big a hoax as anthropomorphic global warming.

Don’t get me started on freedom of speech which is interpreted by many people, especially on college campuses, as the right to express ideas with which Liberals agree. The recently replaced president of William and Mary, Gene Nichol, instituted one such draconian code and was roundly applauded and supported by the entire Liberal establishment including the Virginian Pilot.

Freedom means that we are free to make mistakes, to do foolish things, to hurt ourselves. That is why when I see young children riding their bikes wearing the ridiculous headgear designed to make them look like refugees from a Star Trek episode I see the erosion of freedom. Some states even demand that children wear helmets while riding in-line skates, skateboards, scooters and

tricycles.

And of course the issue of firearms is always at the fore in the fight to protect those freedoms we still have. The Virginian Pilot has just completed a front page series of stories on the evils of guns, especially “concealed carry.” An organization that clings like a leech to their right to print lies – in fact to print anything at all – because their right to do so is enshrined in the Constitution, would happily deny the rest of the people the right to exercise another right found in the same Constitution.

The Right has been accused of wanting to peer into your bedroom to see who you are sleeping with. They have been roundly defeated on this issue. The Left has invaded our bathrooms with toilet laws, our workplaces and schools with speech police, our means of transportation with mileage standards, our right to defend ourselves from mass murderers with “gun free zones,” our right to borrow money from anyone we want at any rate we want.

And always, always, always in the name of “protecting” us as if we are perpetual children forever held in check by our parents. And the people who strive to be our parents are in reality like Big Brother. To paraphrase George Orwell, imagine the Left like an omnipotent parent, telling you what to do – for your own good – forever.

J.R. at Bearing Drift has commented on payday lending. A comment by Jeremy Hinton is a perfect illustration of the Left mindset. Ignoring totally the loss of freedom and getting into a discussion of statistics designed to promote the anti-freedom agenda. You can almost hear Jeremy nag: “It’s for your own good.”

Vivian Paige is, of course, in favor of the law. Keep in mind that payday lenders thrive on the poor and ignorant. But then so does the Virginia lottery. And the Democrats.

UPDATE: Vivian Paige takes issue with me, pointing out that "payday lending" is now on an "equal footing" with all other lenders. That may be true, and for sake of the argument I will assume that it is true. That begs the question why anyone used them since they obviously charged higher interest than those other lenders. Why not just go to a bank and ask for a loan?

And are they really on an equal footing? When a bank lends you money, they don't really lend you the "bank's money" but the money other depositors put in the bank. That is why there is FDIC insurance just in case the bank makes a lot of bad loans and can't afford to give their depositors their money back. Payday lenders lend their own capital. Having said all that, I don't want to be put in the position of being an advocate of payday lenders. I think their fees are exorbitant and I think people who use them are stupid. There are a lot of things I don't like, that take advantage of people and are stupid. Take droopy drawers and rap music for example.

I do want to commend Vivian on her opposition to government mandated smoking bans. Let's see, she opposes government interference in an activity she engages in but supports it in others.

By the way, Vivian, I'm on your side on this and I don't smoke.