Too much fun

When adults take industrial policy seriously then anything goes. Rahm Emmanuel's "You don't ever want a crisis to go to waste. It's an opportunity to do important things you would otherwise avoid." is too revealing to let pass. It showed up in WSJ coverage of health care policy (thanks, Brad) and also in a whacky piece in the NY Times by Prof. Robert Goodman ("Have You Driven a Bus or a Train Lately"?) If taxpayers are going to subsidize GM to build green autos, why not subsidize them even more lavishly to build high-speed trains -- or whatever else greens and statists dream up.

The fact that resources are scarce, and therefore should be channeled to uses that large numbers of people actually desire, easily gets lost. There's too much fun to be had.