Compared to What?

Dr. Thomas Sowell says there are three questions that can cut through the fog:

“Much of the self-righteous nonsense that abounds on so many subjects cannot stand up to three questions: (1) Compared to what? (2) At what cost? and (3) What are the hard facts?”

Anyone who has ever bought a car or a house instinctively understands this.  The wife and I wanted a luxury home in the foothills with acreage and a big horse barn, but a little bungalow in a working class neighborhood was all we could afford, so here we are.

Campaign Season is Upon Us

All sides shovel hard facts, some more creatively than others. So after sifting the information, "Compared to what?" is the salient question.  We tend to compare a program or candidate against a mythical ideal that just does not exist in real life.  We're human--we're flawed, so "compared to what?" is the question that must be asked.

Some would criticize me for being an unprincipled ABO (Anybody But Obama), but I compare every GOP candidate to Obama and it's a no-brainer.  If you're talking about a third party you might as well slap an Obama Hope and Change bumper sticker on your car.

Consider the GOP field: 

* Palin has scant experience...
* Bachmann maybe a little more...
* Herman Cain shows the downside of no political experience...
* Jon Huntsman, fresh from working for Obama...
* Ron Paul is neo-nazi flypaper for some reason...
* Rick Santorum can't even get elected in his own state...
* Gary Johnson smokes pot...
* Mitt Romney is a RINO and looks like the manager who fired you...
* Rick Perry has the odor of crony crapitalism on his boots...
* Newt Gingrich is an operatic bloviator in love with big government...

Still, I would pick any one of these candidates over Obama and his gaffmaster sidekick Palooka Joe from Scranton.

Windmills and Choo Choo Trains

Michael Barone employs all three Sowell questions in his article illustrating how the private sector innovates while government spends and vacillates... 

While governments dither and dispute, the private sector discovers.

For years, governments, national and local, have been promoting wind and solar power, to little practical effect. Curiously, the biggest wind power producer is Rick Perry's Texas. But wind power isn't reliable, and both wind and solar cause serious damage to the environment.

In the meantime, the oil and gas industries -- the favorite target of Barack Obama and congressional Democrats -- have developed new techniques of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) that have vastly expanded recoverable American energy supplies. (Michael Barone - Intercity Buses )

The hard facts are that government wastes money and gives us crappy, surly service, and at a higher cost than the private sector.  Government stinks in comparison to the private sector.

Barone goes on to explain how entrepreneurs are coming up with efficient bus services tailored to the customer, a concept unheard of in government.  He compares this solution to the hundreds of billions that light rail costs.  Again, examine the facts, weigh the cost, and the comparison is easy.   

It makes too much sense for a statist to understand:  Untethered buses are much cheaper and more efficient than infrastructure-heavy trains.  As a bonus, you can cut down on petroleum usage and save the environment by converting those buses to natural gas.

So which gets us closer to the free market solutions described by Michael Barone?  Voting for Obama, voting for a 3rd party candidate, or voting for whoever gets the GOP nomination?