Where's the "Car"?
Judging from the major trend of political rhetoric this summer, one could reasonably conclude that the majority of politicians have moonlighted at Pep Boys at one point in their career. The progress of the “summer of recovery” (or lack thereof) has been documented by a series of analogies based on “the car.” Apparently, this car – our economy – has been stuck in a ditch as Democrats and Republicans fight over the keys to get it out.
Barack Obama is credited with starting this rhetorical parallel: “Republicans were driving the economy like a car, and they drove it into the ditch. And this is a very deep, steep ditch… And just as we’re about to go, suddenly we get a tap on our shoulders. And we look back. Who is it? It’s the Republicans. And they’re saying, 'We want the keys back.' We can’t give them the keys back. They don’t know how to drive!”
Republicans, in a recently aired RNC ad, have seized upon the metaphor themselves: “He promised to change direction… Left turn after left turn, America’s headed the wrong way fast.”
Amid this back and forth, politicians seem to resemble squabbling siblings in the back seat rather than any semblance of responsible drivers, as the nation grapples with crippling 9.2% unemployment and foreboding default.
As Republicans and Democrats fight over the wheel, the right step may actually be to ditch the car. This isn’t to say do nothing and leave it there. Instead, recognize that the car doesn’t exist and never has. This isn’t a frustrating experiment in classroom deconstruction philosophy. Rather, the metaphor itself contains an underlying economic fallacy – that the economy has a singular “engine,” which can be jump-started and controlled.
Frederick Hayek exposed this myth twenty years ago in The Fatal Conceit: “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. To the naive mind that can conceive of order only as the product of deliberate arrangement, it may seem absurd that in complex conditions order, and adaptation to the unknown, can be achieved more effectively by decentralizing decisions and that a division of authority will actually extend the possibility of overall order.”
A recent report by the Wall Street Journal underscored this very point, demonstrating the diverse nature of our economy. While some industries are shedding jobs, others are actually hiring in large numbers and performing quite well. Over the last twelve months, restaurants and certain health care sectors have added over 150,000 jobs, while industries like insurance carriers and telecommunications have continued to make deep cuts. America is unquestionably in a jobs crisis, but the picture is more complex than the general statistics would let on.
There is no doubt that the status quo is unacceptable, but we ought to heed Hayek’s advice: “Before we can try to remold society intelligently, we must understand its functioning.” The economy is an organic, diverse organism far from the singular nature of an “engine” or a car for that matter. Centralized attempts at “jump-starting” it have been, and continue to be, acts of painful futility. As Washington attempts to hack away at this Gordian knot, perhaps we ought to question their premises.
David Brooks, in a recent column, criticized both Democrats and Republicans for buying into this “magic lever,” be it tax cuts or stimulus spending, as single solutions to our economic woes. As a general principle that there is no single-solution cure to an economy, he is spot on. But all “magic levers” are not created equal. Cuts to the size of government and lower tax burdens are steps towards the restoration of a natural, prosperity-driven economy.
For political figures, particularly those on the right, to repeatedly engage in this car metaphor only legitimizes the underlying fallacy of the left’s economics. If metaphors are necessary for this election cycle, may I suggest a horse and buggy – just with 305 million horses. Or, for all of our sake, just stop with the terrible, terrible wordplay…
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Comments :
Nov '10
Re: Where's the "Car"?
A better metaphor for the economy is ecology. The inclination is to spray insecticide onto the disagreeable parts, often with disastrous effects.
Nov '10
Re: Where's the "Car"?
It's not just this summer. This sort of flawed intellectual leap has been around since P's city/soul analogy, probably longer.
Sep '10
Re: Where's the "Car"?
Conservatives are just bad at metaphors, period. Metaphors are devices that carry a thing from one arena to another (in the Athens airport, the luggage carts are each labeled "metaphor"). Liberals, including journalists, love to use metaphors. Ann Coulter's latest book describes this use of pictures as the language of "the mob."
If our conservative politicians can't simply reject the use of all "symbolic example" (tell our audience, Mr. Republican, why should you get the car keys back"), they need to come up with their own metaphors. These should be fresh and stinging (the car is not an appropriate example, Miss Journalist, it would be better to ask why the Democrats want to jump the guard rail and have the country swept over the waterfall).
I told you conservatives were bad at metaphors.
Re: Where's the "Car"?
It also suggests that we find ourselves in some kind of mystery spot, as if we weren't part of the slow devolution of the idea of American self-reliance. The metaphor of the car "being driven" implies that a president -- any president -- or a politician -- any politician -- can "drive" the economy, which is nonsense. The sooner we disabuse ourselves of this weird and infantilizing notion the better.