Who needs government?

[VoluntaryAmerican]

(So this article caught my eye in the paper this morning... start reading it and it sounds good, but then suddenly realize its a strawman of free market capitalism... and just another liberal hit piece against freedom... still worth a read.) -Vol

Who needs government?

By Kevin Horrigan

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/kevin-horrigan/kevin-horrigan-who-needs-government/article_0c4b74ff-1f81-576e-9211-7d341a5140c1.html

I want government to leave me alone. I'm sick of it. Whatever happened to personal freedom? Whatever happened to personal responsibility? I want that government should just go away.

Except for the garbage men. I love throwing stuff away. I want that to continue. I pay $11 a month for it, and that doesn't cover all the costs, so I want government to pay for the rest. Forget recyclables. I don't remember that the Founding Fathers said anything about recycling.

Once the trash gets picked up, government should leave me the hell alone.

Well, maybe a few cops can stay on my street. And the firehouse in my neighborhood should stay open. And if my street gets a hole in it, government should fix it. And keep the stoplights going, but synchronize them so I don't have to wait at red lights.

Bad guys should continue to go to jail, so we'll have to keep judges, sheriffs, jailers, prosecutors, public defenders, probation officers and so forth. But that's it. Now leave me alone.

But that's local government. Having just written a check to the Internal Revenue Service, the big thing I want to go away is the federal government. Luckily, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2050, the Republican budget resolution that passed the U.S. House would eliminate the money for everything the federal government does except Social Security, health care and national defense.

I'm OK with that, except for meat inspection. That pink slime stuff is gross. I don't want trichinosis or E. coli. Agriculture inspectors can stay, because I've read about this mysterious, oozing foam that sometimes causes hog barns to explode.

I don't know any hog farmers and mostly I don't care what happens to other people, but getting blown up in a giant hog foam explosion is just too awful a way to die. I guess I'm just a softie.

Except for the hog barn thing, government can stay out of my junk.

Fine, air traffic control can stay. I don't fly much any more, but some people I like have to fly, and I'd hate to lose them. I suppose we should keep some security at the gates, too. But that's it. After that, government should butt out.

I guess we need to save veterans' benefits, particularly because we'll need a lot of soldiers to use all the weapons the Republicans' defense budget will pay for. But no swanky golf courses and private jets for generals and admirals. No more weapons for stopping the Soviet Union.

Have I got everything covered?

Farm subsidies, out. Roads and bridges that I don't drive on, out. Pell grants? Don't need 'em. Out. Small business loans? Don't have a small business. Out.

Mine Safety and Health Administration? Four words: Magic of the Marketplace. Miners won't want to work in unsafe mines, so owners will have to fix 'em up. Q.E.D.

Same thing with OSHA. Guys won't want to work in unsafe places, so companies naturally will spend the extra money to attract workers.

In fact, we probably can do away with all the regulatory agencies, except for the exploding-hog-barn guys. Do you really think that in a magic marketplace, airlines would cut corners on maintenance? And banks — do you think they'd rip off their customers when they know the bank down the street is playing fair? Don't you understand human nature?

I'm tired of hearing about the so-called safety net. Food stamps, for example. The monthly food stamp allotment in Missouri is $127. Some restaurants, you can spend that much on a single meal, especially if you get a halfway decent bottle of wine.

At $127 a month, if you eat three meals a day, that works out to about $1.40 per meal. Is anyone really going to miss a buck-forty? You can find that much in the sofa cushions. Don't have a sofa? Find one on a curb somewhere, whiner.

Homeland security? I'm torn. I hate terrorists, but the Department of Homeland Security budget this year is $59.7 billion, which is an awful lot of money to spend on the off chance that a terrorist will attack me. I'm willing to take the risk.

Newspapers, radio, TV and the Internet are full of weather, so we don't need the National Weather Service. Federal disaster assistance? I don't live in a mobile home or on the Gulf Coast. NASA? Private enterprise can go to the moon. Federal prisons and courts? Because we won't have the FBI to arrest people, we won't have to worry about them.

Clean air? You want clean air, visit a national park. Just don't expect any park rangers.

Justice Holmes said taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. By 2050, that won't be a problem.



Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/kevin-horrigan/kevin-horrigan-who-needs-government/article_0c4b74ff-1f81-576e-9211-7d341a5140c1.html#ixzz1sQEv4pzD

[Anti Federalist]

Horseshit.

My fireman are volunteers, I pay for private garbage collection and I don't want cops within 50 miles of me.

Airline secuirty, you've got to be kidding me.

Yes, I'm willing to take the risk of a "terrorist" attack, especially when government funds the terrorists and you are statistically 8 times more likely to be killed by a cop than a terrorist.

Miners?

It was government cops, judges and prosecutors throwing miners in jail for fighting for better working conditions.

Fuck you, whoever the jerk off was that wrote this.

[The Goat]

Trash pick up is probably the biggest contributor to useless trash in the first place. People wouldn't be so inclined to accept junk packaging. If it wasn't for trash pickup their would be more reusing, and if the government didn't subsidize garbage. recycleing would probably be more popular.

[Cabal]

Trash pick up is probably the biggest contributor to useless trash in the first place. People wouldn't be so inclined to accept junk packaging. If it wasn't for trash pickup their would be more reusing, and if the government didn't subsidize garbage. recycleing would probably be more popular.

Good catch. The externalities which emerge from the public sector are so abundant that it is often difficult to consider them all, and the ramifications they have on other things. Like endless interconnected rows of dominoes.

[Anti Federalist]

Trash pick up is probably the biggest contributor to useless trash in the first place. People wouldn't be so inclined to accept junk packaging. If it wasn't for trash pickup their would be more reusing, and if the government didn't subsidize garbage. recycleing would probably be more popular.

Possibly.

Or it could go the other way, as in my case, where I pay a premium to have my trash hauled off once a month, without having to paw through my garbage like a rabid raccoon for "recyclables".

[GraniteHills]

Except for the garbage men. I love throwing stuff away.

And as Goat said, don't encourage it and people will likely dispose of less/re-use creatively.


Well, maybe a few cops can stay on my street.

To give me bogus speeding tickets, earn overinflated salaries and pensions by standing there all day watching construction crews, shoot my dog, ignore any urgent call I might have, and put 0% effort into finding the piece of private property someone stole from me.


And the firehouse in my neighborhood should stay open.

Make that 4 firehouses, as in the number my former town of 20,000 now has thanks to unreined spending and the absurd notion that individuals in a community can't volunteer to work together to fight fires.


And if my street gets a hole in it, government should fix it.

They could fix the hole, but they won't. And if they did fix the hole, the hole will be even bigger in 2 years. At that point the president and Congress can authorize a "stimulus bill" to fix even more holes around the country at inflated prices and with below-mediocre results in order to put a bunch of asphalt crews to work for 2 months.


And keep the stoplights going, but synchronize them so I don't have to wait at red lights.

Get rid of lights. They waste energy. Signs work just fine, unless you're talking about a society comprised of people who can't read them because they've been attending public schools.


Bad guys should continue to go to jail.

Maybe, just maybe, we think outside the box and redefine "bad guy." Most people in jail thanks to government aren't bad and haven't committed crimes, or at least any with any victims.


Fine, air traffic control can stay.

Maybe private controllers would be less likely to fall asleep on the job if they knew they'd be fired by their boss.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-michael-j-breus/air-traffic-sleep_b_1367134.html


We'll need a lot of soldiers to use all the weapons the Republicans' defense budget will pay for.

Ah, yes, the "Republicans' defense budget." Last time I checked, neither Dems nor Repubs have come out against standing armies, which just might be the real problem.


Mine Safety and Health Administration? Four words: Magic of the Marketplace. Miners won't want to work in unsafe mines, so owners will have to fix 'em up.

Yes, because government oversight will make the inherently unsafe and uncomfortable practice of going hundreds of feet beneath the earth to bust ass in order to procure precious fuels much safer and much more comfortable: think of government as the salve that turns everything into cotton candy, puppy dogs, and ice cream.


Same thing with OSHA. Guys won't want to work in unsafe places, so companies naturally will spend the extra money to attract workers.

My contractor buddies just LOVE OSHA, it's true: they really enjoy, for example, having to spend thousands of dollars more and many more man hours in order to set up pilons and yellow "crime scene" tape outside a home whose shutters are about to be scraped. Instead of getting down to work, they LOVE the minutia.

That was the most hilarious article of the day.

[VoluntaryAmerican]

Horseshit.

My fireman are volunteers, I pay for private garbage collection and I don't want cops within 50 miles of me.

Airline secuirty, you've got to be kidding me.

Yes, I'm willing to take the risk of a "terrorist" attack, especially when government funds the terrorists and you are statistically 8 times more likely to be killed by a cop than a terrorist.

Miners?

It was government cops, judges and prosecutors throwing miners in jail for fighting for better working conditions.

Fuck you, whoever the jerk off was that wrote this.

Kevin Horrigan

wrote this, not me.

This article really pissed me off too.

[VoluntaryAmerican]

Here's my response to this guys article... just sent this in to the same newspaper. Let's see if they publish this:

Who needs business?

By Matthew M. Turner

I want all business to shut down. I’m sick of them. Whatever happened to wealth equality? Whatever happened to altruism? I want government to take over everything, so business can just go away.

Except for newspapers. I love my morning newspaper. I pay $21.67 a month for my newspaper. Forget nationalizing newspapers, they are exempt. And if I remember correct it says something in the Bill of Rights about newspapers being safe, or something.

Once my newspaper is dropped off, business needs to leave me the hell alone.

Well, maybe UPS and FedEx can stay open too. You see the United States Postal Service isn’t doing so hot. It lost $5.1 billion dollars in 2011. But it shouldn’t be shut down. Too many government workers would lose their jobs if that happened. Besides, UPS and FedEx would probably hire more new workers and take over the marketplace. They would get too rich.

I like to fly comfortably so private airports can stay open too. But the TSA must be there to keep us safe. Naked body scanners and genital pat downs are necessary to protect us from terrorists. Don’t like it? You still have the liberty to take the bus. Oh that’s another thing. We should have a naked body scanner at every bus station, more government jobs the better. Well you can still drive your government model electric car.

But those companies are just small fries. I want Wall Street to disappear. Luckily, the way things are headed most of the United States will be run by the government soon enough. Yup, if Obamacare gets approval from the Supreme Court the federal government can then force you to buy pretty much anything.

Think of all the wonderful possibilities!

I’m certain we need to get rid of private schools. It’s unfair that people pay for better treatment and besides the public school system has done such a marvelous job educating our nation’s youth. While we’re at it, give teachers a raise, they’re already above the median income but they deserve a little more.

Moving on to higher education. Everyone should go to college. For free! But those evil universities keep raising tuition rates. Don’t they understand that the federal government keeps giving students more student aid so that we can have equality? Let’s put all private universities out of business and end the cycle of greed.

One last thing, private charities, shut them down too. I’m sick of them. I know, I know, they don’t operate for a profit. But think of all the government charity that money could go to?

So you’re probably wondering where we will get all the money to implement these changes. Well we can raise taxes on the smaller and smaller percentage of people who actually still pay taxes (hopefully they are still paying) or we can go to our friends at the Federal Reserve and they can print more money.

I mean what’s the worst that could happen, hyperinflation?

Who cares, as long as America is equal and greed free it will be a much better place. Who needs business?

Thomas Jefferson once said, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

Oh, what does he know? Get rid of that Constitution too.

-30-

[KCIndy]

Here's my response to this guys article... just sent this in to the same newspaper. Let's see if they publish this:



Great response to the article! Let us know if they publish it.

[The Goat]

Possibly.

Or it could go the other way, as in my case, where I pay a premium to have my trash hauled off once a month, without having to paw through my garbage like a rabid raccoon for "recyclables".

What I'm saying is a disposable economy of junk like we have isn't as possible when the government just hauls off all your junk for "free".

[Democrat4Paul]

I believe we need some government, not all government as we know it today. Trouble is no one seems to agree what kind of government we need or even have under our current system. I think we can all agree our federal government is too large and too costly and somewhat intrusive.

Controlling? Oppressive? Maybe? But I also refuse to be anti-government to the point of losing my own freedom of thought and peace of mind. For all the things I don't need from government the biggest might be for it to control my daily life and actions and thinking.

I want to take Ted Nugent and use him as an example. I have seldom heard anyone so controlled by government in my life. His very being is possessed by its mere existence although he is as free as he wants to be. Everything else he is simply obsessed with and controlled by.

Some get up every morning seeing governmnet phantoms and tyranny behind every bush. I prefer to live, be happy, and recognize my freedom where its at.

That has nothing to do with what government does or doesn't do for me. Try living one day just not caring about IT and it's so much better. And everyday can be the same.

Doesn't mean you don't need to take action, vote, or protest. It just means see the trees for the forest and maybe in the big picture....life is pretty good :)

Poor Ted. They really have him by the nuts.