Comments on: Tom Friedman on ‘Being Green is the New Red White and Blue” http://www.strategyunit.net/2006/01/tom-friedman-on-being-green-is-the-new-red-white-and-blue/ Sun, 22 Apr 2007 14:28:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: IJ http://www.strategyunit.net/2006/01/tom-friedman-on-being-green-is-the-new-red-white-and-blue/comment-page-1/#comment-52 IJ Sun, 08 Jan 2006 10:42:46 +0000 http://www.strategyunit.net/2006/01/tom-friedman-on-being-green-is-the-new-red-white-and-blue/#comment-52 <p>Thomas Friedman’s piece can be seen as an allegory. For the dangers of “petrolism”, substitute the dangers internationally of any of a couple of hundred national governments misusing their steady income stream of taxes, and controlling the levers of power in their sovereign nation.</p> <p>Checks and balances are safeguards for taxpayers, and are supposed to stop the misuses. </p> <p>Unfortunately they can be prevented. There’s a systemic flaw. The New York Times <a HREF="http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20F13FB39540C748EDDAB0994DD404482" rel="nofollow">reported</a> a couple of weeks ago on the futile attempts to get value for money from the US defence budget:</p> <p>“But already there are signs of trouble ahead. In the last few years, Mr. Rumsfeld has tried to kill some weapons systems he saw as Cold War anachronisms and to push a military modernization plan. But his efforts were thwarted by what Washington calls the Iron Triangle of Congress, the uniformed military command and military contractors.” </p> Thomas Friedman’s piece can be seen as an allegory. For the dangers of “petrolism”, substitute the dangers internationally of any of a couple of hundred national governments misusing their steady income stream of taxes, and controlling the levers of power in their sovereign nation.

Checks and balances are safeguards for taxpayers, and are supposed to stop the misuses.

Unfortunately they can be prevented. There’s a systemic flaw. The New York Times reported a couple of weeks ago on the futile attempts to get value for money from the US defence budget:

“But already there are signs of trouble ahead. In the last few years, Mr. Rumsfeld has tried to kill some weapons systems he saw as Cold War anachronisms and to push a military modernization plan. But his efforts were thwarted by what Washington calls the Iron Triangle of Congress, the uniformed military command and military contractors.”

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