This morning's New York Times carries a front-page dispatch from Poland that tries to find problems with the country despite its booming economy.
So, for instance, the article claims that "The telephone system, reluctantly changing from a state monopoly, is inefficient, compared with the Czech Republic's or even Romania's, and expensive." Well, we can't speak to the quality of phone service in the Czech Republic or Romania. But during Smartertimes.com's most recent visit to Poland, which was not too long ago, we had excellent phone service, better than in visits to Germany and Austria during the same trip through Central and Eastern Europe. The article gives no indication of how the Times is measuring whether a phone system is "efficient." It seems to us like there's not a whole lot of room for subtle judgments of the efficiency of the phone system of a country, anyway -- either the phones work or they don't.
The article goes on to say that "Poland's politics are messy and crowded, still driven by the ideologies of the battle, 20 years ago, against Communism." It says this with a note of disapproval, likening the country's politics to its allegedly bad traffic and roads. But why shouldn't the ideas that animated the battle against Communism -- such as respect for freedom, a commitment to democracy, opposition to state power and control -- still hold sway in Poland? It seems to us, and probably to many Poles, that those ideas are of lasting value. There is no reason for them to disappear with the fall of Communism.
Finally, the article says, "Although its roots are in a trade union, Solidarity is center-right in politics." A-ha. Now we see why the Times has manufactured a front-page dispatch on Poland's problems -- it's because the governing party is center-right. Note also the use of the word "although." The Times is suggesting by that word that it believes that the true interests of trade unionists would be better served by a left-wing, or center-left, party. In fact, there are plenty of reasons for trade unionists to support center-right politics. For one thing, union members work and are therefore inclined to support the right's efforts to reform or trim welfare programs for those who do not work. For another thing, collective bargaining can raise workers' wages to the point where the workers are prosperous enough to support efforts by the right to lower their taxes. In addition, wise union leaders realize that the success of labor is inextricably linked with the success of business, and they therefore realize that pro-business policies of a center-right government will benefit them. Finally, wise union leaders remember that the statist ideology of Communism was the enemy of free labor unions. The statists saw free labor unions as a threat because they were an independent force that could counter the influence of the government. Wise union leaders see the left's drive to expand the size of government as a dangerous pattern that could eventually threaten the influence of independent forces such as unions and churches. So, rather than writing, "Although its roots are in a trade union, Solidarity is center-right in politics," the Times would have been closer to the mark if it had written, "Because its roots are in a trade union, Solidarity is center-right in politics."
Energy Deregulation: The Times op-ed page today carries another in a series of Times articles blaming deregulation for the price increases being experienced by energy users in California. This edition of Smartertimes.com is being written from San Diego County, the front line of this battle. And we can report that the reason prices are going up is not deregulation but over-regulation. For years, price controls and environmental strictures made it not worthwhile for power companies to build additional power plants in this region. Now that some of the regulations have been lifted, there is still a complicated pricing mechanism in place where all the power must be sold at one price set by a low bidder. It's not deregulation that is running up the electric bills of consumers here, it is the aftereffects of the old regulations combined with the effects of the regulations that remain in place. Consumers are responding to the price increases by using less electricity and by stepping up conservation measures -- actions that you would think that the Times would want to encourage. But we guess that the Times's support for expanding government regulations trumps its environmentalism. In other words, higher energy prices are okay, in the Times's view, if they come from Al Gore's proposed BTU tax designed to discourage energy consumption; but higher energy prices are bad, in the Times's view, if they come from deregulation.
Not the First: A Times dispatch from Jerusalem in today's editions says Prime Minister Barak "won a landslide victory in Israel's first direct election contest for the post of prime minister." In fact, the first such direct election was in 1996 and resulted in the victory of Benjamin Netanyahu.