Flakes, Flakes

Today, I think back to my youth listening Frank Zappa and his classic double album Sheik Yerbouti. In the song "Flakes," Zappa describes people who would be aptly described as well "flakes." "California's got the most of 'em... boy they've got a host of them," the maestro sang in my adolescent past.

Typically, when you think of Flakes in California, you reflect upon the rantings of Michael Savage on talk radio about his native San Francisco. Or you think of what a tool Nancy Pelosi is. Or how anyone with a mind could elect a couple of battle axes like Boxer and Feinstein to the Senate. Or even the recent acquisition of Manny Ramirez by the LA Dodgers this summer and you think, yeah they're flaky, but then again NY has a A-Rod, Madonna, and Charles Schumer, and also elected a felon State Comptroller (Alan Hevesi who resigned) and there is always our legendary former Governor, Client Number 9.

I think back to the song Flakes when I read that the California nannystate wants to regulate your wide screen television now because it is "an energy hog." I see this continued nannystate activity by the California Regulatory bureaucracy to be an affront to economic liberty on both a macro and a micro scale.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tv3-2009jan03,0,2869589.story


Amazing, the article in the LA Times references how California's regulatory state would become the national standard in a number of areas. Of course, the article does not mention CAFE standards in the automobile industry, which has inhibited consumer choice and which are largely to blame for Detroit's current malaise. Of course, the Energy Commission Grand Pubbah blithefully adds, Refrigerators and air conditioner manufacturers have grown up with standards, and, now, they are generally considered successes."

Didn't Mr. Energy Commissar read in the papers that GE was looking for bailout money just like the Big 3 Autos. Coincidence? http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2008/11/12/will-the-ge-capital-bailout-make-a-gm-bankruptcy-easier/

It doesn't take a PhD to figure out what is going on here. The California regulatory state comes up with its goofy standards which make people feel good about the environment or whatever is the flavor of the month but which kills our country's ability to compete. It doesn't matter how much of a whiz Ford becomes at finance or insurance and it doesn't matter how well heeled GE is at backing commercial paper (holders and holders in due course, I just had a flashback to my law school courses on Articles III and IX of the Uniform Commercial Code). In the end, these companies have to make products, such as cars that people want to drive and appliances that people want to own. If they cannot compete with Japan, the Asian Tigers, or manufacturers in the emerging world then I cannot see how these entities will remain viable in the long term.

The ironic proof of my pet theory is contained in the article itself. The gentleman who just made a fine haul at what appears to be a warehouse store bought himself a 40inch Samsung television set.

American industries need to compete successfully. "Give a man a fish you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a life time." Why is it that this nation has collectively lost its common sense.

The lyrics for Flakes come back to me now I I finish off this rant, "We are millions and millions"/"We're Coming to Get You"/"We're Protectec by Unions, so don't let that upset you/You might call us flakes or something else you might coin us"/ "but we know you're so greedy that you'll probably join us."

"We're coming to get you."

"We're coming to get you."

"We're coming to get you."

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