Imagine owning a grocery store, and your competitor determines what products you can sell. Or that you’re a banker, and the owner of a competing bank tells you what hours you stay open. Or that you own an automobile dealership, and your competitor requires a certain brand of tires be on all the vehicles you sell. Sounds far-fetched, doesn’t it? And of course, it is.
Nevertheless, Toyota’s issues, which are huge, are PERCEIVED in some corners as being inflated because the government has an ownership interest in a competing auto manufacturer. This is just one problem caused by the government getting in the business of owning companies that compete in the marketplace. Especially when the government is an owner of U.S. company and the competitor is a foreign company. Thrown in a comment by a representative of the competitor/regulator that your vehicles should not even be used (“Stop driving…”) (later retracted) and questions start being asked. The first one is obvious: “Is this a conflict of interest?”
Tomorrow, February 23, the CEO of Toyota is scheduled to appear before a congressional committee. It will not be pretty. Neither will the aftermath, because one of the questions that will be raised is whether the government/competitor is singling out a competitor. I’m not defending Toyota here, nor am I accusing the government. Just pointing out that one of the dangers of government ownership of private business is fairness with competitors.
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Suspicious of academics who study rural America
Kelley Snowden, writing in an article entitled Speak Your Piece: Ph.D.s Do the J.O.B. in the online Daily Yonder, is suspicious of academics who study rural America. Snowden states:
From what I have observed, there is a palpable disconnect between academia and the “real world,” including rural America. Partly to blame is our system of higher education and what we have traditionally valued in academia (we are “doctors of philosophy” not technicians or engineers, and certainly not farmers). Part of it is, yes, our system of tenure, which forces many into a frenzy to publish or perish. This pushes many academics to jump from topic to topic, going with whatever is trendy at the time so they can say they made a “contribution,” the whole time making their vitas longer and heavier but producing very little of use to those of us on the ground.
The article is insightful because of the national conversation growing louder about urban vs. rural issues. Recommended reading.
P.S. The Daily Yonder also has an enlightening piece about Choctaw Chief Phillip Martin, who recently passed away.
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Tagged Daily Yonder, rural america, rural vs. urban