A collection of thoughts –
We (our government) regulate and legislate way too much. We like to think we believe in freedom, but as a country we don’t behave that way. Through legislation and regulation we attempt to dictate how people live and think. Our government (you and me) tell me what I can and can’t do, and how I have to do it. It seems as if nothing is exempt from government control –alcohol, tobacco, food, medication, plants, animals, buildings, sex, and even our own personal property. We have cabinet level departments to regulate Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Labor, Transportation, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, the Treasury, and the Interior. It is no wonder that the growth of our GDP is so low with that much regulation going on. We can’t do anything without filling out some paperwork and getting permission from some bureaucrat who thinks they know our business better than we do. I predict that we will eventually choke on over-regulation by our own government. WE will be our own undoing; probably not during my lifetime, but surely during this century.
To paraphrase a quote by David Starr Jordan (1851-1931)
Wisdom is knowing what to do [or NOT do] next, Skill is knowing how to do it, and Virtue is doing it.
Not only do we over-dictate within our borders, but we also try to influence and impose our way of life on other countries. Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya are the most recent examples. For a supposedly freedom loving country we sure have some imperialistic and dictatorial manners. Our government’s domestic policy and foreign policy is “I know what is best for you and I will make you believe as I do.” I can only figure that this comes from an overinflated sense of self-righteousness about our values, values that we as a country can never come to a concise consensus on. Internationally I think we could exercise a little more MYOB – Mind Your Own Business, or Star Trek’s Prime Directive – no interference with the internal development of alien civilizations. Protect ourselves, yes, but meddle, no. The difficulty is to know where self-protection ends and meddling begins.
“Democracy consists of choosing your dictators after they’ve told you what you think it is you want to hear” – Alan Coren (1938-2007)
I am not proposing sedition or treason against our government. I am simply proposing that we as a collection of people, that collection being known as a government, show a little restraint. We should not be using our government as the solution to all things. We should be careful when using our government to impose our will on others, both inside and outside of our borders. The government should only do that which only the government can do. Otherwise, how do we determine where the government’s self-imposed limits should reside? Do we really think the government can limit itself? Exactly where is the government’s limit? That is the problem; the all-powerful government seemingly knows no limit.
“Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.” – John Basil Barnhill (1914), though often misattributed to Thomas Jefferson
“That government is best which governs least” – Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (1849)
I am sorry to sound like some backwoods anti-government extremist. I just wish our government showed a little restraint such that I wasn’t constantly afraid of what the Federal Government is going to do next. They scare me. I’d appreciate some moderation.
Tom
July 2011
Yeah...but the big issue is where does one draw the line?
ReplyDeleteMost regulations are imposed due to some person, business, or entity crossing the line and leading to some human/financial disaster and the huge public outcry that resulted in a Federal regulation that attemptsto prevent a similar future disaster. (Or one state complaining about what some other state is doing to them.)
1) Salmonella in eggs, or coliform in veggies or ground meat distributed to tens/hundreds-of-thosunds of folks across all states? Some easily preventable, others not. Yet funds are eliminated to provide more oversight of food production facilities to keep the bad-actors in line. Some feel that self-regulation is cheaper....for hundreds of sick or dead persons? Under-regulation.
2) Carbon taxes for CO2 emmissions from vehicles? Doesn't the Fed gas tax already do that? Over-regulation. Why add another ridiculous layer of regulations? (Just increase the gas-tax some, and make sure the funds actually go into infrastructure improvements.)
3) Internationally. You give modern arms to a bunch of backwards, tribal, self-centered morons ....and you get what we are seeing now. Terrorism and civil wars with disastrous human tragedy because these backward, barbaric, tribal cultures are all about POWER with absolutely zero sense of "the common good". But who goes in to fix them? The U.S. has taken the lead and been roundly criticized all over the world for the inevitable disasters that unfold, because no one can fix them. Like you say...stay OUT! Let the Europeans take over most of that stuff since they, are closest to the problems that are really on their borders and we have our own troubles on our own borders. Then we can sit back and tell them they are doing it all wrong.
4) Except for the nuclear reactors and atom bomb research in Iran...Bomb their facilities to rubble! (AH crap....but what of their inevitable retaliation? Guess we can let Israel do it.)
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Jeeze!! What frustration started this?
Something to do with registration internet/remote learning courses in 50 states?
Is this really a family story post?
Start a new blog.
Call it "Got a Bone to Pick!"
Hah!
U.Bill