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Right or Wrong

Entry 755, on 2008-04-26 at 21:29:08 (Rating 3, Politics)

Some people can't get anything right. Even when it looks like they are doing the right thing they really end up doing the wrong thing instead! Maybe its because they just have no clues about how to analyse the pros and cons of a decision they make, or maybe its because they are cynical and make decisions intended to look superficially good even though the larger implications are negative.

So am I thinking of anybody in particular when I make the comment above? Well yes, I am actually. I'm thinking of none other than our old friend George Bush! I have blogged about George on many occasions in the past and I can remember only one entry where I was positive about him.

So what's my criticism this time? Its from an article in the New Zealand Herald titled Missing links in the food chain which discusses the opinion of writer Michael Pollan who blames Bush for increasing food prices.

The theory is that the subsidies he introduced for corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel have reduced the amount of food made from these crops. The idea was to reduce the USA's dependence on oil, which is entirely sensible of course, but you shouldn't fix one problem by creating an even bigger one, and that should have been a factor that was well understood by everyone concerned.

Few people agree that soy and corn based fuels are a good idea. Not only do they use food crops to create fuel but they also create more carbon emissions than the fuels they replace. Of course a cynic would suggest that farmers are great Republican supporters and that American presidents have never really cared about the world beyond the interests of their traditional base of supporters.

Food shortages and increased food prices have been claimed to be an inevitable result of these policies and it seems that its now happening. Its an idea I have heard on several other occasions and it does make sense, although I admit I have never seen any numbers to prove it.

So it seems that even when he tries to do the right thing Bush ends up doing the wrong thing. That's unfortunate because there are better decisions he could have made. But they might not have been so lucrative for his supporters. God bless America: the best democracy money can buy!

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