August 27, 2009--Less Than Useful
I have a very good friend who, I think to provoke me, at least once a day sends me via email stuff that circulates among political conservatives. Occasionally they are provocative, Wall Street Journal op-ed pieces for example, and suggest that I should do some recalibrating of my views. But much of it, well, silly.
Take the following from yesterday that is designed, via less than half-truths—to “prove” that government is incapable of doing anything right:
The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775 - they've had 234 years to get it right; it is broke, and even though heavily subsidized, it can't compete with private sector FedEx and UPS services.
Social Security was established in 1935 - they've had 74 years to get it right; it is broke.
Fannie Mae was established in 1938 - they've had 71 years to get it right; it is broke. Freddie Mac was established in 1970 - they've had 39 years to get it right; it is broke. Together Fannie and Freddie have now led the entire world into the worst economic collapse in 80 years.
The War on Poverty was started in 1964 - they've had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our hard earned money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor"; it hasn't worked.
Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965 - they've had 44 years to get it right; they are both broke; and now our government dares to mention them as models for all US health care.
AMTRAK was established in 1970 - they've had 39 years to get it right; last year they bailed it out as it continues to run at a loss!
This year, a trillion dollars was committed in the massive political payoff called the Stimulus Bill of 2009; it shows NO sign of working; it's been used to increase the size of governments across America, and raise government salaries while the rest of us suffer from economic hardships. It has yet to create a single new private sector job. Our national debt projections (approaching $10 trillion) have increased 400% in the last six months.
"Cash for Clunkers" was established in 2009 and went broke in 2009 - -after 80% of the cars purchased turned out to be produced by foreign companies, and dealers nationwide are buried under bureaucratic paperwork demanded by a government that is not yet paying them what was promised.
So with a perfect 100% failure rate and a record that proves that each and every "service" shoved down our throats by an over-reaching government turns into disaster, how could any informed American trust our government to run or even set policies for America's health care system - - 17% of our economy?
Maybe each of us has a personal responsibility to let others in on this brilliant record before 2010, and then help remove from office those who are voting to destroy capitalism and destroy our grandchildren's future.
At times, I simply press the Delete key; while at others, with this one, I zap back a response. Here’s what I sent back to my friend:
This is much too quick and easy. We can't deal with any of these things in sound-bites. What we have to do is improve them. Most of these programs sort of work and a few are essential. Does that mean they get A’s or B’s? No. But we need to have them and make them more effective.
One could make the same kind of easy list about things that are not run by governments--like what happened to our steel industry, what happened to our railroads (before Amtrak), what happened to our real estate economy, our financial institutions, to manufacturing, to . . .
We have trouble doing anything right--both via the government and via the market. Thus this list is less than half useful.
And, I could have added, to demonstrated that some of America’s great fortunes were amassed by various forms of governmental assistance—either through direct grants (like giving away federal lands to the railroad industry); through direct government intervention (like supplying troops to put down strikes and thus limit labor costs); via tax breaks (such as tariff manipulations that benefited the steel and shipping industries as well as real estate venturing); by government subsidies for research and development for the pharmaceutical and space-based industries; by deregulating the oversight of the financial industry so that it could run unfettered; by passing legislation to help create versions of monopolies for entities such as medical insurers . . . .
I could continue. But you hopefully get the point. Which is—that things are not as simple as they seem. And that fancy half-truth rhetoric will not get the job done.
Take the following from yesterday that is designed, via less than half-truths—to “prove” that government is incapable of doing anything right:
The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775 - they've had 234 years to get it right; it is broke, and even though heavily subsidized, it can't compete with private sector FedEx and UPS services.
Social Security was established in 1935 - they've had 74 years to get it right; it is broke.
Fannie Mae was established in 1938 - they've had 71 years to get it right; it is broke. Freddie Mac was established in 1970 - they've had 39 years to get it right; it is broke. Together Fannie and Freddie have now led the entire world into the worst economic collapse in 80 years.
The War on Poverty was started in 1964 - they've had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our hard earned money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor"; it hasn't worked.
Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965 - they've had 44 years to get it right; they are both broke; and now our government dares to mention them as models for all US health care.
AMTRAK was established in 1970 - they've had 39 years to get it right; last year they bailed it out as it continues to run at a loss!
This year, a trillion dollars was committed in the massive political payoff called the Stimulus Bill of 2009; it shows NO sign of working; it's been used to increase the size of governments across America, and raise government salaries while the rest of us suffer from economic hardships. It has yet to create a single new private sector job. Our national debt projections (approaching $10 trillion) have increased 400% in the last six months.
"Cash for Clunkers" was established in 2009 and went broke in 2009 - -after 80% of the cars purchased turned out to be produced by foreign companies, and dealers nationwide are buried under bureaucratic paperwork demanded by a government that is not yet paying them what was promised.
So with a perfect 100% failure rate and a record that proves that each and every "service" shoved down our throats by an over-reaching government turns into disaster, how could any informed American trust our government to run or even set policies for America's health care system - - 17% of our economy?
Maybe each of us has a personal responsibility to let others in on this brilliant record before 2010, and then help remove from office those who are voting to destroy capitalism and destroy our grandchildren's future.
At times, I simply press the Delete key; while at others, with this one, I zap back a response. Here’s what I sent back to my friend:
This is much too quick and easy. We can't deal with any of these things in sound-bites. What we have to do is improve them. Most of these programs sort of work and a few are essential. Does that mean they get A’s or B’s? No. But we need to have them and make them more effective.
One could make the same kind of easy list about things that are not run by governments--like what happened to our steel industry, what happened to our railroads (before Amtrak), what happened to our real estate economy, our financial institutions, to manufacturing, to . . .
We have trouble doing anything right--both via the government and via the market. Thus this list is less than half useful.
And, I could have added, to demonstrated that some of America’s great fortunes were amassed by various forms of governmental assistance—either through direct grants (like giving away federal lands to the railroad industry); through direct government intervention (like supplying troops to put down strikes and thus limit labor costs); via tax breaks (such as tariff manipulations that benefited the steel and shipping industries as well as real estate venturing); by government subsidies for research and development for the pharmaceutical and space-based industries; by deregulating the oversight of the financial industry so that it could run unfettered; by passing legislation to help create versions of monopolies for entities such as medical insurers . . . .
I could continue. But you hopefully get the point. Which is—that things are not as simple as they seem. And that fancy half-truth rhetoric will not get the job done.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
6:23 AM
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