Bitch-Slapped by the Invisible Hand
Not long ago, a number of senators and congrescritters were shocked, yes shocked! and dismayed at the news that the US military had awarded a large contract for air tankers, those planes that act as flying gas stations for other planes, to Airbus parent company EADS, with a little slice of the pie to Northrup-Grumman. The objection lies in the fact that EADS is a European company, fer crissakes, and the contract did not go to good old American mom-and-apple-pie Boeing.
Well! You can just imagine how upset these elected officials were, and especially the ones from constituencies with an interest in Boeing. The howl of wounded patriotic pride went up immediately, accompanied by hand-wringing over how we could be shipping jobs and money overseas, especially in this worrying economic climate.
Unfortunately for these pillars of American interests, the contract went to Airbus for some very good reasons. For one thing, they had the low bid. For another, their air tanker actually worked. That’s right, the Boeing entry didn’t even meet the Air Force’s technical requirements. Finally, the USAF didn’t have any choice in the matter; It was required by law to accept the best product at the lowest cost.
The law seemed rather sensible at the time it was passed (2003), and still does today. It was part of a general package of opening our economy to free trade and Adam Smith’s invisible hand. Free trade is a mixed blessing, lowering production costs while harming the working class by opening markets to products produced in lower wage environments. It increases overall prosperity, but distributes that prosperity heavily towards the wealthy. That’s just fine by the corporations who were calling the shots in 2003, with plenty of warm fuzzies flying between the military-industrial complex, the White House, and a Republican-dominated Congress. The law fit well with the mantra that free markets are good for everyone, and not just big business, and in a wild abandon fueled by the massive profits to be made in our adventure in Iraq, this contract, at least, was opened to bidding, in contrast to, say, Halliburton’s. Little did anyone realize that Boeing might actually lose the contract.
Well, it did. And suddenly, the very same neocon assholes who figure it’s okay to sacrifice your paycheck on the altar of global capitalism don’t think it’s okay to subject their own political prospects to the same market forces. Free trade, right Congressman? The efficiency of the market only works by virtue of actual competition, after all; gotta admit the possibility of losing contracts when the competition is real, right, Congressman?. Those who can’t compete in the market deserve to go under, don’t they, Congressman?