Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Wednesday, August 19, 1992

They wouldn't listen then. Will you listen now? The libertarian view that government must be pruned, drastically, was roundly dismissed as unwarranted. "We'll control the growth and protect our shared assets." became the mantra while the looting continued, the national tapeworm gorged itself on our conscripted funds and dismissed discontent as the rantings of a small, cynical minority. Do we outnumber them yet?

Government cannot be all things to all people. In any political process there are winners and losers. The process itself is flawed. Losing doesn't automatically make the other side right. After all the next President could lose the popular vote but win the electoral vote. It doesn't allow the winners license to lord. The checks and balances within the system are supposed to let all sides and views come to the table. But it doesn't seem to be working that way. The process is too top heavy, insulated, self-important, self-serving and self-perpetuating to be effective.

Government creates out of need. A need of society is not being met, so the government gives birth to an agency to address that need. When the need is resolved that agency should become extinct. Move along to the next problem. But safety and redundancy are now built into the system. If one agency can solve the problem in x years then 20 agencies working on the same problem can solve it 20 times faster. WRONG! All it can do is feed and grow. Even if you could make sense of any small part of it, you still get dizzy when you look at the whole. Money is needed locally. We have town, grade school and park district taxes, township taxes, high school taxes, jr. college district taxes, and county taxes on our homes. The state needs money so more taxes. The federal government needs money so guess what. Each need was real at some point, and no one place can be pointed to as the source of the problem. So it goes along gobbling up more dollars. Growing and insulating itself from accountability.

Ronald Reagan promised to fix the broken tax system. Instead he changed the distribution system returning less back to the States. This left States short so they changed their distribution to return less back to the local level. The local level looked around for someone to shortchange.
Finding no quarter there, they found the quarters they needed from local taxpayers.

George Bush got into big trouble after saying, "NO NEW TAXES", however we need new taxes. What we don't need is some of the old taxes. I don't know which ones are good or bad but someone needs to look into it. Not to pick on any one tax or organization but Rural Electrification comes to mind. It must have seemed like a monumental task when undertaken but aren't they done yet? And if not then why aren't they and when will they? Are there still crews stringing wire or just bureaucrats stringing us along?

The Resolution Trust Company is a bureaucracy in its infancy but they learn quick. It was formed to liquidate the assets of failed Savings institutions, estimates were bandied about as to how much it would take to accomplish this task. An amount was budgeted, off the budget, yet it soon became apparent that it would not be enough. We need more money. We need office space to work out of, staff for these offices, supplies, forms, etc. ( and you know how expensive etcetara's are nowadays) So now we own R.T.C. buildings all over the country, filled with people and their etceteras, working to solve this crisis. But more money is needed. In just a few short years we have created a complete, hungry, and growing organism, second to none in bureaucratic circles. It seems like the cure is worse than the disease. Meanwhile, the poor people at Rural Elec. are trying to figure out how they can get juice to Farmer Joe's place down the road.

Corporate America is downsizing, because it can react, it is becoming lean and mean in order to compete. The decision makers in the bureaucracy need to react but they can't or won't. They don't know where to start because they are so insulated from the problem that they are the problem. After World War II we dismantled a war machine, after the Cold War we need to dismantle this bureaucracy. Some people, fairly high up must start making decisions. It is a unenviable position. But somebody must raise their hand and say " MY JOB HERE IS DONE! I'M OUT OF HERE!" Getting a good job is tough for a lot of people now, it could get tougher if someone isn't strong enough to make a decision.

So think globally and act locally. Do what you can, wherever and whenever you can. Start with the Bureaucracy closest to you and work your way up. Make them justify their existence. Vote for the people who you think can actually make a decision. Then hold them to it. Write to politicians, and the media about agencies that aren't cutting it. Stop counting on the other guy, it is you who holds the power. You are just letting them use it (or abuse it as the case may be.) Someone must be accountable and someone must call them on it.

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