Bloomberg the tyrant

At first we–Susan, Patty, and I–thought this couldn’t possibly be Michael Bloomberg, just a totally awesome imitation. I mean, c’mon! Bloomberg would never say anything as baldly obvious as “Maybe I can make people behave!”

This May Be the Most Cringeworthy Video of Mike Bloomberg Yet

We looked it up, though–and holy cow, it really was Bloomberg! In 2006. Fourteen years ago. In 2006 he did this takeoff on Mary Poppins to, well, make light of his presidential prospects.

Thing is, that “make people behave” schtick is pure, unadulterated Bloomberg. He’s said it many times: use taxation as a means of behavior modification. The government should use taxes to encourage or deter certain behaviors. To “train” us, like Pavlov’s dogs. And what you don’t want to tax, you ban.

Mr. Bloomberg very, very much wants to “make people behave.”

He’s trying to sell himself to us as a… “moderate.”

Warning: Once you buy this item, you won’t be allowed to return it.

See the source image

How stupid? Well, we let robots walk all over us. If people weren’t stupid–or at least fantastically credulous–there’d be no robo-calls.

How Stupid Are We?

Mayor Bloomberg never did get around to reserving ten thousand New York City parking spaces for electric cars–it’s so hard to control everything! He left office with people still able to obtain french fries: surely a sore disappointment to him.

And then there’s the characters we send to Capitol Hill to rule us and make themselves fabulously wealthy. It’s astounding, how rich you can get in “public service”! And all on our dime!

Something ought to be done about that, someday. But we’d have to get a bit smarter first, and public education is there to make sure that never happens.