Some people are reticent to fully accept the need for big government. That is understandable.
Americans have been force-fed a diet of propaganda for small government for generations. That message was ramped up in the Goldwater campaign. Other than retaining a presence in our psyche, it just hibernated there until the advent of St. Ronny.
With the implementation of the schema underlying George Orwell’s classic 1984, lies became truth. Books by Reagan insiders, e.g. David Stockman, confirm that they lied. Admittedly, they haven’t copped to lies about the advantages of small. They just grew the government much larger.
What impelled the Reagan Administration to grow the government, rather than reduce it as they promised? Hypocrisy? Power lust? Well, you really can’t rule those out with that bunch but I think much of the fault can be found elsewhere.
Part of it is the natural tendency of bureaucracy to grow. That fails to provide a full and satisfying answer.
Who is crying for smaller government? It is a good-sized segment of the public. That flame (to mix metaphors) is constantly fanned by business interests and their toadying politicos. The very same segment of the public, supplemented by others, is constantly asking the government to involve itself, or increase its involvement, in a multitude of areas.
These people apparently are oblivious to their contradictory and countervailing desires.
People ask why the government failed to know what was going on that brought down our economy. They fail to realize that, given the need for investigators to read a million emails, analyze hundreds of thousands of documents, have lawyers decide the legality of what was done and bring a case that may take years to prosecute, the SEC alone is under-resourced for even one case at a time. They fail to see that what they want requires a larger government.
A couple of other factors, that can’t really be separated are the growth in both the population and the complexity of the country. The world has changed since the election of George Washington. There were 2.4 million free and 600,000 slaves here that year. Less than 1.3% voted. We had no standing army to speak of. We had no need to support nuclear weapons systems. Just this past week I heard that there is a debate in the UK as to whether they need to retain their Trident submarine deterrent. Just the maintenance cost for their little force is $30 billion per annum.
Washington didn’t have to keep an eye on Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan Chase. He didn’t have to deal with Katrina or BP. He didn’t command forces in bases in 130 different countries. He didn’t have to maintain the Interstate System. There were no national parks, no Smithsonian, no Army Carriage One, no pharmaceutical industry, no Veterans Administration, no Social Security.
If you think homelessness in a problem now, get rid of Social Security. People want these government agencies. Large, extended families are not the norm, as they once were. Few people breed 15-20 offspring to take care of them in their old age anymore. Times change. The role of government changes. Even the Tea Party lady demanded that the government keep its hands off of her Social Security.
Okay, so there is some justification for big government. Rational people would suggest that, more than size, the problem with government is that it is not well run. There is some truth to that. Perhaps we should address just why that is so.
The most recent survey shows that federal employees are paid 22% less than the private sector. I guess that shocks those who believe the scaremongers who claim they are grossly overpaid. I don’t recall hearing these people complain that the CEO of Walmart is grossly overpaid when he makes more than 2,354 Walmart employees.
The expertise needed to investigate Wall Street is of a kind that Wall Street recruiters seek. I have yet to find a government employee getting a $10 million bonus. Letting the too-big-to-fail banks fail would eliminate many of those attractive paychecks, and save the taxpayers enormous amounts. Several agencies, e.g. SEC, FDA, FDIC, USDA and many others need both to substantially increase staff and pay levels. The stability of a government job might have greater appeal if these private jobs were not subsidized and guaranteed.
Overlooked is why would qualified people want to take a job that included the benefit of constant vilification. We hear that constant drumbeat of inefficient, incompetent government. Does that make you drool to become a part of it? We need a more realistic appraisal of government, its roles, its size and what we are really asking, demanding of it.
There is one more aspect that absolutely needs to be addressed. That is meddling. The wealthy spend billions to get government employees not to do their jobs properly. They use money and influence to get politicians to assist them in this. The SEC ignored evidence that Bernie Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme. BP was allowed to continue drilling with hundreds of violations outstanding. Banks were violating the rules to issue sub-prime mortgages.
How many miners need to be murdered so the owner can be the highest paid in his industry before the government arrests him?
Pharmaceutical companies are in constant violation of FDA rules but the medicines stay on the market for years while the FDA dithers. Prescription medications taken as prescribed are the 4th leading cause of death. Is smaller government the answer?
The reasons for this are two-fold. One is the revolving door. Whatever the agency, people go back and forth and back again between jobs in industry and the agencies that are supposed to police them. The other reason is that staff know that enforcing the laws and rules will get them in trouble. There is always great pressure from Congress and frequently from the Oval Office to not do the job correctly.
The simplest matter to correct would be to pass a law jamming that revolving door. Anyone holding a job in an industry regulated by an agency could not work in or for that or any related agency. Anyone working for an agency could not take a job in an industry directly affected by that agency. Yeah, I know. Lots of luck. And that would be the easy one.
On the other hand, it is just assumed that private industry is efficient. Where’s the proof? The destruction of our manufacturing base is the greatest achievement of our corporate world. Anyone could have made money paying 12 cents an hour to slave laborers. Selling sub-prime mortgages as top-rated makes money. I guess I have to concede that lying is efficient. Is that the kind of efficiency we want from our government?
Yes, there were inefficiencies during WWII. However, when the government took almost total control of industry it was the time that our economy was the most efficient. Howard Hughes didn’t want to cooperate vis-a-vis the Spruce Goose. He opted out and it ran out of control. It never made production. It never flew until after the war. This followed his successes with other projects that operated under close government supervision.
Of course we had the advantage during the war of people understanding that our nation was in peril. Most everyone cooperated. I guess no one appreciates how dire our present situation is both presently and prospectively.
Okay. Pay government workers on a par with the private sector. Quit bitching and moaning. Stop denigrating the idea of working for the government. Stop the revolving door. Tell them to do their job honestly and tell the politicians to mind our business. Accept the fact that the problems with which government must deal are large and complex.
Lastly, we must acknowledge that the government must be large enough to ensure that multinational corporations and industries cannot dictate to the government. If a foreign nation or corporation tried that the entire country would be up in arms. Why? because their goals are different than ours. They do not have our best interests at heart. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. That is also true for every major corporation in this country, multinational or national.
To permit them to dictate to our government is simply treason. Our government is supposed to be us. We are supposed to be our government. If it is unsatisfactory, improve it. The answer is not to eviscerate it. The answer is not to emasculate it. There is a problem and we are listening to the ones who want to destroy the government for their simplistic answers – the answers that benefit them at our expense. Remember that the next time you spend all of that money lobbying for a trade bill that sends your job to Bangladesh.
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hope and change
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