Let’s face it. The idea of limited government is stupid on its face. What does it mean in the first place? Limit what? One person’s government intrusion is another one’s entitlement. And let’s face it, it ain’t 1873 when you could literally grab some land, build your house, and run your own one family universe. Right now we are so interdependent it isn’t funny. I’m sorry folk, but I don’t know how to fix an electric line, put out a fire, pasteurize milk, fly a M16, or pave a road – I’d imagine most of you don’t have any or more than one of those skills either and even if you did, the hodgepodge of systems would be nearly impossible to integrate so business let alone personal activities could function.
So, let’s grow up and accept that there are some things we need government to do and do right. They are called political priorities and they should be things that impact EVERYONE, no matter your race, socioeconomic status, gender, religion, or locale. So here is my list of political priorities where government, no matter if local, county, state, or federal should be involved. These are not in any particular order as all are equally important in my eyes:
• Education: You can’t do much in a capitalist democracy with a stupid citizenry and good schools allow the poor the chance to get out of poverty. As you need to know more to do more, I’m talking about investing from K through 12th plus two years vocational or university education.
• Waste: Everyone needs garbage removal but I am expanding this to protecting the environment from destruction. Nobody likes to live in funk but folk don’t mind dumping theirs on someone else’s lawn. Somebody’s gotta control our natural urge to be selfish in this area.
• Maintaining infrastructure: The world runs on electricity and roads. The business man needs to get to work, the crack head needs to call his dealer on the cell phone, and the snarky teen needs to update her Facebook page.
• Transportation: How much money would we save if we had integrated bus, train, and plane transportation across the country? Plus, having professionals transporting folk would reduce the number of crashes and if there is an accident, you have someone to sue.
• Emergency Services: Do we really need to have a gun in the home if the police had enough cash to effectively prevent and investigate crime? CSI is possible but financially impractical for most municipalities. Typically, people go to jail not because they are guilty but because they are too broke to make bail or to hire a lawyer to properly represent them (most public defenders don’t do more than help you negotiate a guilty plea). And who gets upset when the EMT or the fireman shows up?
• Military and Strategic Intelligence: A local militia was not going to stop any of the invasions we have experienced either on actual American soil or on the lands of our allies. The fondness Tea Baggers have for revised Revolutionary War history leaves out the fact that one of the reasons George Washington was hired by the Continental Congress was to professionalize the rage tag group of volunteers.
If governmental dollars and efforts were focused on just these areas, I think we citizens could be responsible for managing the rest. Each bullet point allows for enough freedom for the rich to run amok, the poor to scrap out a living bribing the soft-hearted, and the middle-class to avoid the latter while pushing their kids to be the former. You’ll notice that I left out two important pieces, one of which I have a direct interest in – regulations and medical care. Enforcing regulations would be part of police work while medical insurance for employees would be required of all businesses while I would eliminate Medicaid for all but the seriously, permanently disabled, children, and the elderly while encouraging churches and other nonprofit groups to reach out to the uninsured.
What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment