Dear Friends,
It seems to me, government failures are so common they are common knowledge, and so are ignored and ridiculed, yet we give government more and more power over us every day, so that government can fix every problem. This is using that which doesn’t work to fix that which does work. What is most amazing however is, we all know government fails at everything, we laugh at it’s failures and they are so common we often don’t even notice them, but we give government more power and money over and over? Moreover, most of the political establishment the world over is dedicated to government solving the world’s problems. If most or at least a plurality of people disagreed with that philosophy such a paradigm couldn’t exist yet it does, so I have to wonder, what gives?
The reasons government fails at everything it put’s it’s hands to are numerous but one stands out. Government officials are never held to account. Despite the enormous amount of money bureaucrats make there is never accounting for the results only the process. Forget to put three staples in a document, signaling three copies need to be made and the consequences are immediate and drastic, release a million gallons of deadly toxic water into a watershed however, and get a raise. In the big things government failures are overlooked, or made fun of, but in the small insignificant things government is a well oiled machine.
If you or I started a series of events that lead to a negative outcome, like a practical joke, where someone removes a fence protecting pedestrians from a thousand foot cliff and jumping out as they pass… would lead to consequences, both for the unfortunate pedestrian and the jokester. Let government start a chain of circumstances that lead to a tragic death, and the victim is blamed, as in the recent death of Lavoy Finicum. There was no compelling reason to initiate the confrontation, the outcome was obvious, and the consequences for the police and bureaucrat who started it are non existent. That failure of government, both in using law to prevent terrorism against a rancher so the government can take his land, and the confrontation that clearly would lead to the needless death of a protester, will go unnoticed by the media and public at large.
Governments waste money on an epic scale. Hillary Clinton’s State department “lost” five billion dollars. No one was held to account, no charges were filed, the money just went missing. Of course, someone or some entity is five billion dollars richer, at your and my expense. Every year congresspeople have their wasteful spending lists. From five hundred dollar toilet seats to building a five hundred thousand dollar facility that melted in the rain, government wastes money that could be better used by the private sector, to create jobs, improve the economy and raise our standard of living. Pork barrel politics is the bread and butter of government.
So what is it about government that makes so many people believe it is the answer to every question? Perhaps it is the mistaken idea that throwing money at a problem will solve any problem. When I was a child in the first grade I read an article about how George McGovern believed more government spending would solve all our problems. At the time I thought that was insightful and intuitive because, as I thought then, spend enough money and any problem can be solved. Now that I have grown up, I realize more money thrown at a problem means more waste, graft and fraud… not a solution. In fact, more money creates the incentive NOT to solve the problem, else the gravy train would stop.
As I have shown, government only fails, and often fails spectacularly so why are so many people still tricked into giving government more power to solve all of our problems? Examples where government has succeeded are yet to be found, other than war, and war is not a strategy we should ever seek. Common sense dictates we limit government, take away it’s power to waste money, control our actions and hobble the economy. Elitists will use scare tactics, like claiming we will drink polluted water if not for the EPA, (who recently released millions of gallons of toxic water), fuel would be too expensive if not for the Energy department, (which has resided in the gutting of America’s energy infrastructure resulting in our dependence on foreign powers for energy), our children will get a poor education if not for the Education department, (which has presided over an education system that has to continually dumb down tests so our kids can pass the SAT), our farms will cease to exist unless government helps them with the Farm Bureau, (which has seen the evisceration of the family farm), etc… Only in government can failure be an advantage.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
