Just how "involved" should government BE?

[SoCalDem]

The libertarians have been out in force lately, telling us how government needs to be cut, and how it needs to "stay out of our lives".

First of all there are many layers of government to consider.

Are you willing to part with county oversight when it comes to zoning? Do you want to build/occupy a nice home, only to see a shabby strip mall built in that empty space across the street?

Should your local government care about how your city streets are maintained? If there are traffic lights? street lights? parks? recreation centers?

Do you expect schools to magically pop up like toadstools after a rain? Assuming that you want schools, how do the teachers get paid? Should they work for free? You say your kids are grown, and you don't want your property taxes to pay for kids that are not yours?.. ...When YOUR kids were in school (or your nieces & nephews) your taxes alone did not cover the cost.. and who wants all those "hooligans" running amok during the daytime..riding their bikes across your yard:)

When you get on a plane, do you care if someone has been keeping an eye on the airline's maintenance records, or are you willing to "risk it"?

When you buy a car, do you care if an agency somewhere has been monitoring safety issues ,and putting information out there for you to compare?

When you choose a bank, does the fact that your money is insured, matter, or would it not bother you to see the bank's doors locked someday...with YOUR money inside (theoretically)

Is it a good idea for your doctor to be mandated to pass certain levels of competency, and be subject to some oversight?

Should there be no standards or agencies monitoring water quality, air quality?

The recent pet food horror is the tip of the iceberg, and should remind us how dangerous our food "could be". Is a "smaller" FDA/USDA an idea you could "get behind"?


All the people who "DO" these jobs need to be paid. They do not have time or energy to go door-to-door, asking for donations. They need to be part of a regulated/defined agency..with real experts...real research and those things cost money.

How we GET that money is by taxation.

The whack-a-mole system we have now is NOT working well. As we get larger, and as our problems increase, it's only logical that the costs of these services should increase as well. Currently, we careen from "problem" to problem, with funding being cannibalized from agency to agency.

The tax-cutting frenzy of late is causing irreparable harm to our infrastructure, and eventually those issues WILL have to be addressed, at at a higher cost, too. We have ancient bridges, toxic dumps waiting to be "cleaned", crumbling buildings, devastated sections of most major cities that only get worse every year.

Where will the money come from to fix all these things, as the workforce continues to slide offshore, and as workers have to settle for smaller and smaller paychecks? Even with taxation, as the paychecks get smaller and fewer, the taxes collected will automatically shrink too.

What we need is a complete overhaul of what we do, how we do it and how we pay for it..and we need it SOON.

In every organization I have ever worked for or belonged to, there was a defined hierarchy, and a pretty well defined layout of who does what, when they do it and to whom they report.

It's simple organization, and whoever ends up president in January '09, they need to start from square one, and get this house in order.

Certainly we have most of what we "need"..right here to provide a decent life for all of us, but we have to use our LAST dollar for wars and foreign intervention..instead of our FIRST.

[crikkett]

1. Yes we need to be like the air force that way!

They build their clubs first and their runways last. That way they know they have enough money.

Good post, thoughtful.

[Warpy]

2. It depends on your view of what makes a country

If a country is made of people occupying a certain area of land, then you'd want a government that serves those people and defends them against the powerful. That's a government large enough to administer human services and regulate industries.

If you define a country by its institutions, then you'll want a government that defends the powerful from the people, which is just about what we have now. That's a small government with few regulatory functions and no human services. The people are thrown to the wolves.

It doesn't take a genius to see which system of government enables a population to thrive and which will descend into feudalism.

[SoCalDem]

3. I can never understand why some people are so greedy.

I have never felt badly about paying taxes, because I see the things that my taxes pay for.

and in the US, the richer you are, the MORE benefit you get from taxation.

It boggles the mind to think of how many rich people actually feel as if they owe the rest of us...nothing at all..and that everything THEY have is all because they "deserve it"..and the rest of us somehow do not deserve anything at all.

I really think that if one actually looked at the very rich people we have today, they would find that most of them inherited their wealth..(other than the few truly inspirational..and lucky ones)

A lot depends on "when" you get some money too. If you are in your 30's and inherits some money, it can change the lives of your whole family. Kids may get to go to college, who wouldn;t have otherwise.. perople can buy that first home at a young age, and start the moving up progression, people casn start their own business. The older one is when they inherit money, the less it really affects their lives.

[me b zola]

4. It's not just the Libertarians, it's also the rePublicans who hate the government

We are seeing the results of what happens when people believe the government is there to serve the wealthy take power.

Do not trust people who hate government to run the government, they will destroy it.

Do not trust anyone who says that they are going to run our government as a CEO, because we'll get bent-over the same way the US worker has been screwed.