Prescient Observations

Tuesday 14 September 2010 - Filed under Dumbassery + Government

Those who claim the “necessity” for many of our federal programs or else we face “TEH END OF DA WURLD” ought to remember these prescient observations:

Just for instance, there was that war that Washington declared on poverty and that it is still fighting… and losing. But like all wars — hot, cold, or metaphorical — it has been excellent for “the health of the state.” So many new government agencies, so many jobs for community organizers and public interest lawyers and lobbyists, so much money sloshing around to nonprofits and think tanks. There is still plenty of poverty, of course, but then you can’t fight a war without an enemy. Which is what makes this war, like the one on drugs, so good for Washington. The enemy is indestructible, so the appropriations just keep rolling in. The voter in this referendum on Washington might like a chance to express himself on those wars. Time, he might say, to surrender, cashier the generals, and demobilize the troops. Let them find honest work.

Then, there are those other great tasks that Washington has taken on, lest the people undertake things they are not trained or qualified to handle. Like educating children. Washington created a Department of Education the better to serve… well, the bureaucrats who work for it and the teachers’ unions that dictate its policies. At the time of its creation, the Department of Education was said to be necessary because the United States was a “Nation at Risk.” Things are no less dire on the education scene these days, but there are a lot of consultants doing very nicely and, in Washington, that is the definition of success.

We have a Department of Energy, created to end our “Dependence on Foreign Oil.” Well, we are no longer dependent on foreign oil. Now, according to the locutions of Washington, we are “addicted to foreign oil.” Which may, or may not, count as progress.

Not so long ago, Washington decided that it would be good for the country if everyone owned a house. So it ginned up the action at Fannie and Freddie, since these operations were going to make it possible. Soon there were mortgages for all. And soon after that, foreclosures for millions. And bailouts costing hundreds of billions for Fannie and Freddie.

Every program we look at we see one of little more than waste and failure. We have not stopped poverty through government intervention. We have not stopped drugs through government intervention. We have not stopped the stupidification of America through government intervention. We have not stopped our dependence on the middle east for our energy needs via government intervention. We have not put everyone in their own home through government intervention. In fact, a more accurate argument would be that since we’ve instituted these federal programs, all of those problems have gotten not better, but appreciably worse, all while costing us taxpayers untold trillions of dollars which have flowed right in to the pockets of those who support the ruling class.

Government is inherently wasteful, and has very little interest in actually fixing the problems it feels destined to fix. Its only role is to increase its presence and leverage over the lives of the not-government.

This coming election should not be about refuting Obama and his progressive policy (though that is a fucking fine fringe benefit), but about refuting the role of government in our everyday lives. It is not team red or team blue that is the problem, but government.

2010-09-14  »  madlibertarianguy