This theme will be prevalent in my many of my blogs: Government is the problem to all our solutions.
Government has its place. And different levels have their place as well. But at all levels they should largely be concerned with protecting citizens and borders, and beyond that, they should be oversight and standards bodies.
Take the road systems. At a federal level, we should have standards for road width, lane width, signage, minimum engineering standards, etc. Local governments should be responsible for speed limits, parking laws, road placement, and stricter engineering standards where applicable, etc. But the government should build or repair exactly zero roads. What the government can do is bid out construction to private entities, hold them accountable for building long-lasting roads to the correct national and local standards, and then contract for repairs as needed.
The above can be applied to almost every facet of managing a country.
Should the government run factories, insurance companies, hospitals, or pensions (to name but a few endeavors)? No!
Should the government set pollution standards? Yes.
Should government pass laws to protect citizens from corporate abuses? Probably – though robust competition is better at that than government ever will be.
Should the government protect workers pensions? Depends. That’s a question that should be answered by voters. If we want that protection, then we should tell our representatives to seek it and tell us what it would cost.
Why should we limit the government like this? Government consists of two groups: 1: politicians, and; 2: bureaucrats. Neither group is capable of the most critical element of running a business: business sense. They’re simply incapable of this type of thinking. Politicians think only in terms of getting, then staying in, power. They don’t really care what they must do to stay in power.
Bureaucrats care only for rules, processes, growing their organizations (therefore increasing their budget allocations), and keeping near to their allocated budgets.
Neither group care about spending money. The only difference is the bureaucrat cares about keeping at or near their budgets. Politicians could care less about spending. If overspending yields an election win, then so-be-it.
We need politicians to stop promising things with our money. And it is OUR money, not theirs.
We need governments to “stay in their lane”.
Over the course of time, I’ll be adding parts to the theme of government. This Part 1: Overview is a 50,000 foot level view. Additional parts will be added and be more nuanced and detailed. I’ll categorize them all as Government.
See Part 2 addressing governments running businesses: