Dave Johnson, Speak Out California.
Watch this great video:
The video is funny, but it makes a point: We need government. Republicans say “government is the problem” but just who is government a problem for? If you are a top executive in a large chemical corporation and your bonus depends on lowering the cost of discarding toxic wastes, government stands between you and the river into which you want to dump the wastes. It costs the company less to dump the waste into the river, you will get your bonus, but We, the People don’t want that stuff in our water. So for you, government is the problem. And that is a good thing. But our government is us. Our government protects us.
Government also empowers us. In the 1950s President Eisenhower proposed building the interstate highway system. That was an example of government spending, and the top tax rate was over 90% on income above a certain amount, so after executives and owners of big companies made several hundred thousand dollars additional income was taxed at a very high rate. (They could still become very, very wealthy, but more slowly.) This meant that the major beneficiaries of our government helped pay for our government. And it paid off. The interstate highway system triggered a surge of economic growth, new industries, new products — and even greater income for the very people who were taxed to help pay for it.
Of course, at the time, some (not all) of the wealthiest objected to being taxed, even though the taxes led to even greater gains for them as well. They were shortsighted and considered government to be a problem. Lucky for all of us, even for them, it didn’t turn out that way.
P.S. They’re serious about hating government, and they really do hold up Somalia as an example of what they want! Go see for yourself at the libertarian Mises Institute, which “defends the market economy, private property, sound money, and peaceful international relations, while opposing government intervention as economically and socially destructive” where they write in Stateless in Somalia, and Loving It,
Somalia has done very well for itself in the 15 years since its government was eliminated. The future of peace and prosperity there depends in part on keeping one from forming.
And see for yourself at the libertarian Reason Magazine, “the monthly print magazine of “free minds and free markets,” where they write about The Anarchy Advantage in Somalia.
I guess if Cholera and lawlessness don’t bother you, maybe you don’t need government. The rest of us, however,…
Click through to Speak Out California and leave a comment.