Saturday, October 30, 2010

Is government really the problem?

Too often we in the liberty movement are quick to blame government for all of societal ills.  But is this true? To find out we must first come to agreement on what government really  is.

Let us think of government as an apparatus of force.  Like a club wielded by those who have the most influence or control.  If government is a club then it is neither good nor bad.  Only people can be good or evil. Like the old adage guns don't kill people, people kill people.  When we attack the government as the root of the problem we are misapplying blame.  We should focus on the who and why when blaming the government.

Corporate influence within the government is probably the leading cause of problems within our republican government.  Corporations seek to limit competition by regulation and gain access to the public coffers with contracts.  The recent wave of bailouts is a clear example of corporate favoritism and control of government.  The private federal reserve gets to pick and choose which of its members stay in business and which fail.  In many cases the government regulators are often former workers of the businesses they are now supposed to regulate.  This corruption leaves the average citizen feeling apathetic and distrustful of government.

Unions, and specifically public unions, also are instrumental  in using the government club to their benefit.  All across the country and indeed the western world, public unions have lobbied successfully to give themselves lavish benefits and golden pensions.  The results have been higher taxes and resentment of public employees.  This abuse of government has come to the forefront during this long recession but have yet to be addressed in any significant way. 

The future of our movement depends on us communicating our ideas of limited government in a clear way to both liberals and conservatives.  We need to cater our message to our audience.  There are people on the left who fear corporate control and people on the right who dislike union influence.  We should be able to convince both sides that our ideas are best.

2 comments:

  1. Excellent read. A government institution does not act independelty -- it's influenced by people who make up and run the instution. Similary, a corporate does not have a conscience of its own. There are people behind it who set policies to steer the corporate in a direction they desire.

    But does that mean we should not blame the government system for some of the injustice it entails? If the people running the government are capable of doing wrong -- then surely those who set up policies are also capable of doing wrong ( as you mentioned -- lobbyists influencing policymakers) and thus their policies (government role) need to be scrutinized.

    The Consitution initially did not grant women rights or recognize black slaves as humans. Does that mean we should disregard the constitution? No -- we need to look behind the motifs of the founders for drawing up such laws. We need to look at the people behind the policies. We will find that the policies are not perfect just like we humans are not perfect.

    We yearn for limited government because for the fear of other humans who can often be misguided, blinded by prejudice, angry and irrational. Humans are filled with desires, misguided thoughts, prejudice and so on. This is evident in the crimes we commit.

    So lets say we put individuals who are not flawed in power. That would imply the voters would have to be flawless to chose a flawless leader. lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol olol lo lo l lololololololololololololololololololo

    Seems like you had an odd conclusion. You could definitely develop this post further.

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  2. Travis,
    Very well said! Since the government is US, seems like right now we have rather what we deserve. Time to get specific as to the who and what.

    I'm noticing more and more that the truth lies somewhere between polar opposites. In this case, just as you say it is both corporatism and unionization causing problems not one or the other. This should motivate all the rest of us, who are paying the freight, who do not want to be government clients, and see government do the few things it supposed to do; primarily protecting our liberty.

    I landed here originally because I noticed an incoming from your site to Grassroots in Nebraska. Thanks for putting us in your links list!

    I'll be adding yours to ours, I think your perspective is right on here!

    Shelli

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