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A Contrarian Case for Government
This of all weekends might not be the time for this, but as George Will piles on with a column arguing that “government and the sectors it dominates have made themselves ludicrous” and “opened minds to the libertarians’ argument,” someone should defend a beleaguered political system that has kept this country the most free and prosperous in the world for centuries.
In the 1950s, best-sellers like “The Hidden Persuaders” and “The Organization Man” excoriated Big Business as the root of American evil, just as fringe arguments for Socialism and Communism were doing, in overheated attacks that boiled down to the naïve discovery that society was organized and that large organizations, while conferring benefits, were not always friendly to the best interests of individuals.
Now, in Ron Paul and his ilk, we have the mirror image of all that, fueled by the shambles of a total politicization of everything that has gone wrong in a period of economic upheaval that was not created by and won’t be totally solved by government.
Blaming Bush for creating and Obama for not overcoming a recession miss the point that government certainly affects the economy but doesn’t control it. (In the 1970s, Gerald Ford promoted “WIN (Whip Inflation Now)” buttons and Jimmy Carter talked about a national malaise, but neither did much to improve the financial state of the nation.)
2 Responses to “A Contrarian Case for Government”
Business gets a pass. Always has. There uncontrolled greed ALWAYS gets a pass in THIS country. Business is the God here, nobody can touch it. Business DEMANDS and gets what it wants every time! Our elected politicians fall down on their knees before business interest but NOT THE PEOPLE’S INTERESTS.
A look at ANY other modern nation in comparison to ours, cuts open the bloody wound our people’s freedom suffers to placate BUSINESS INTERESTS. Yet our standard of living is LESS! We have no national healthcare, but THEY DO! We have no retirement at 58 years, BUT THEY DO!
They have no broken economy BUT WE DO! What we have is fat business sitting on all the money while we spin circles in Washington!
This country is no longer of by and for the people, BUT OF BY AND FOR BIG BUSINESS! It is NOT freedom you get, but indentured servitude for a miniscule pay check while THE BUSINESS JERKS take it all and laugh at you!
Stand up you cowards and fight these people!
I’ve always noted that Jefferson and Marx agreed that the problem was letting business intertwine with government, which has certainly happened. Their solutions differed radically, but their analysis was the same. Government is no enemy of business, particularly big business, just free enterprise.
All organizations decline over time, but governments are extremely difficult to reorganize, precisely because they are necessary for a civilized society.