Ryan ChartrandEvery now and then, I will read something in the Mustang Daily that is so ridiculous and illogical that I will feel prompted to write a response. Thank you Ian Nachreiner, for supplying me with just such a column. Your piece, “Conservatism: the ideology of individual responsibility,” was so full of holes and misguided information that if it was a business venture, it would surely go bankrupt.
In your column, you talked about liberal elites “maintain(ing) a state of fear to enrich their own pocketbooks with green industry),” while in reality we have entered a war in Iraq under a state of fear to enrich the companies of the conservative elite: Halliburton, Big Oil, and the Industrial Military Complex.
You also said that government should be “willing to let businesses fail, rather than bailing them out.” But conservatives insist on bailing out the U.S. auto industry and airline industry time and time again, not to mention the $800 billion bailout for Wall Street.
This amount of money makes social programs look like pocket change.
You write that “government is the worst manager of resources, with the exception of the military.” I would argue that the military is the worst manager of resources that there has ever been. From the failed “Star Wars” program to unnecessary wars, the military has wasted more money than all of the “liberal” social programs combined.
A trickle-down economy just doesn’t work. We must water the roots of the tree to get the fruit.
Gabriel Kaprielian
architecture alumnus