May 9, 2023
Despite a slowdown in consumer spending in March, consumption remains at the heart of the U.S. economy, accounting for nearly 70 percent of GDP. While a mixed bag, most economists agree that consumers must continue to spend in the face of lingering inflation if we are to avoid a recession.
Unfortunately, it seems that many Americans, including some policymakers responsible for overseeing the economy, are growing more disconnected from the realities that fuel domestic prosperity. From their plastic phones, digital warriors post online about the need to ban plastics, while haughty electric vehicle proponents ignore the fuels required to charge their batteries. They fail to recognize that the food arriving at someone’s doorstep is the result of an integrated distribution network and hardworking farmers, and not the sole byproduct of a tech platform in Silicon Valley.
While COVID made more Americans aware of the supply chain that makes life possible, ignorance — or willful disdain of facts — persists. Perhaps nowhere has this been more evident than in the frenzy surrounding the freight rail industry, which moves about a third of domestic freight, following a terrible derailment in Ohio in February.
Politicians have used the crisis to their own political gain while sowing unjustified fear about the overall movement of goods on rail. The data show big time accidents are down over time, with the number of derailments sharply declining since 2000, even if small one, even if small ones in handling facilities episodically occur.
The result is a sweeping piece of legislation inaccurately called the Rail Safety Act that would do little to improve safety but would hurt businesses and consumers by slowing down the movement of goods. “It incorporates policy recommendations from Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg that are not germane to the East Palestine accident, grants the secretary’s office broad new powers to regulate the rail sector, and includes sops to organized labor,” says the National Review editorial board.
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