WHY DOESN’T GOVERNMENT WORK?

Many of us remember funny scenes from “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” referencing the Vogons, petty bureaucrats who shuffle endless forms and work at a snail’s pace.  As much as we laugh, it isn’t all that funny when you go to renew a driver’s license and have to step through the following process:

1.   You were smart – you made an appointment.  Nevertheless, you stand in line to let them know you have an appointment.  You’re finally getting your RealID, as you kind of have to get it now.  You have the sheaf of paper to prove you’re you.

2.   You are finally handed a number which tells you to watch a screen for your turn.  You assume that you will be called sooner as you have said appointment.  This may, or may not be true.

3.   You finally see your number telling you which window to go to.

4.   They either accept your ID (license, social security card (really?), passport, two bills with your name and address on it, and perhaps a few other pieces of paper.  Or they don’t.

5.   You have no idea how long this process will take, as you don’t know if they will make you take the written test (another line).  You also don’t know how the eye test will go, as they often have problems with lighting, and don’t understand those of us with mono-vision where one eye is for distance and the other for close-up.  Then, there’s the line for your picture.

6.   You end up going to several other windows, waiting in other lines, and if all things go well, you get your license in three or more weeks.  (Except in FL, which can do all of this in less than ½ hour and get you a real license immediately).

Vogons don’t seem like a joke anymore, do they?  The interesting part is that our elected bureaucrats don’t have to do this.  There are private offices for them to conduct business efficiently.  Because…they are so much more important than we are.  This is actually a part of the bigger problem.  These people don’t get held to the same laws as we do, unless their name is Trump.  They exempted themselves from Obamacare, because, of course, it wasn’t good enough for them.  Cadillacs for them, Yugos for us.

Decadence

Roger Kimball, in the Epoch Times (#rogerkimball #epochtimes ) talks about American decadence, describing it as the situation when “the forms of institutions survive, but the substance or purpose of those institutions has been perverted, hollowed out.”  These institutions are costly to us taxpayers and impact our lives in so many ways.  Regulations by unelected bureaucrats that affect, say, trucking, have downstream costs to you because anything affecting the cost of trucking makes your goods and food more expensive.  Everything that is done by the massive number of agencies can impact the quality of your life, the affordability, your choices and even, your life.  Look at the FDA and the CDC.

Too Many Agencies, Too Much Time on Their Hands

We now know that the NSA and FBI (and probably scores of others) is gathering data about us all the time.  (They seem less interested in the data on illegals, such as how diseased they are or their criminal record in their home state).  The IRS added thousands of agents just to snoop even more into our finances, while ignoring the waste and stupidity of their own agency. 

Lenin was quoted as saying “communism means keeping track of everything.”  These bureaucrats also create crazy numbers of laws to ensure that every citizen is a law breaker, subject to adverse consequences at any time. 

Every day, our government expands, hiring new people and creating new departments as if any of this goes to our betterment. They also claim to have created new jobs, but they are all make-work intrusions into our personal freedoms.

The Beauty of Federalism

Federalism means the government can only do specific things, but it also means it is banned from adopting certain roles or carrying out specific actions.  The Federal government has only the powers given by the Constitution; the rest are reserved to the states or the people.  The goal was to give only enough power to protect our rights, not to infringe.  But with each presidency, more power has devolved on elected and unelected officials.  If only we had adopted more of James Madison’s ideas, because he was far more concerned about the potential overreach as time went on.  If we followed the intent of the Constitution, our federal government would be quite small indeed (and much less intrusive).

The Bill of Rights was an attempt to limit the power of the Feds against us, which is why it many clauses are stated as telling the Feds they have no right to do X. 

The Risks of Our Connected World

Got a computer in your car?  It’s very possible that you could find yourself unable to start your car one day because you don’t have enough “social credits” with the government, or they suspect you of something.  Our cell phones are tapped regularly; be careful what you say or where you go.  And as more data can be accumulated, more agencies and more employees are added to monitor what we are doing.

Perhaps the only positive here is that most government agents are pretty incompetent, move at the pace of the Vogons and are lazy.  But when they are not, how safe do you feel?  Wouldn’t you prefer a more streamlined, less intrusive government?  If so, vote for the people less drunk on their power and privilege.