yet another political/social/philisophical rant
Something has been bothering me for a while... about the argument for free-enterprise vs. government doing the work, for the government. that is; anything the government does requires at least some small amount of work (and usually money) to make it happen. Much of that work can be "outsourced" to private industry. A lot of people really like this idea for a variety of reasons (some talked about, others not). One of the reason most often referenced is "efficiency". "Government is inefficient" they say. I think this claim is very often over stated, but I'm not going to argue about this point. What's been bugging me... is something about *profit*, and it just got a little clearer in my head just now, and this is it: most of whatever efficiency is gained in private industry is converted into profit... privately owned wealth. So, do we have a more efficiently run state? I contend not. I think what we wind up with is less money going directly to the working people and more of that money going to owners of companies... big companies... which is to say: the idle rich. Once a business is given a task by the government, that business will work as hard as it can... not to do the best job possible as one would hope, but to make as much profit as possible. That means quality of service declines, ground level employees (the privately employed people doing the actual work, government work) are paid less and worked harder. The government doesn't spend any less or not much less money... and whatever money is left over winds up in the pockets of share holders. Whatever efficiency is gained winds up as profit and reduced services, which means most of us wind up with less that we might otherwise.
You could say that any privatized governmental function serves as a tax break to the filthy rich... because we, the rank and file tax payers, pay the filthy rich to do a poor job of the government's work.
my basic thing: When people rearrange the structure of how publicly work gets done, it tends to change where the money winds up. "Rearrange" is a key word in that sentence... because it's like a deck of cards, a zero sum game. There will be an end result with something left over. In the end, who has received the greatest benefit?
The purpose of government... think about it... is to improve the lives of the governed. We come together to form agreements such as our constitution and laws in order to make our own lives better. Murder is illegal? Thank goodness! My life is better. I get to vote for anyone I choose to lead my country? Alright! My life is better. Pay taxes to build a few roads? OK... as long as we all pay a little bit for the new roads, I'm cool with that... because roads (often) improve my life. Government is for *us*. All of us. When it does anything, this should always be the driving principal. We, all together, pay lots of money to a public sector in order to improve our collective existence. Whenever some of *us* are benefiting more than others, we, the people, the owners of this nation and government, need to take a very close look at what's going on.
hm... I bought a book about a week ago that speaks to issues like this one. I haven't read it but I listened to the author speak a little. Did you know that big box store (like Wal-mart and Target) often don't pay sales tax to the government? They collect it, but they have deals with the government (local) which allows them to keep the sales tax money. The rationale behind this perk is that they (the big box stores) strengthen the local economy ... so the local government should subsidize their presence. Did you know that? And, what happens, of course, when a big box store moves in is all the local small stores providing the same services go out of business. This means (!!!) the small local business owners are subsidizing their own demise. Follow? The little guys are driven out of business. People go to work at big box stores and are paid less. And we, who used to own, run, and work at our local business now shop at the big box stores, pay "sales tax" because we are legally required to do so. This "sales tax", however is kept by this new store, as a subsidy. We pay "taxes" in order to help the filthy rich to destroy our locally owned and operated businesses.
This is not the kind of thing that is talked about much on TV. go figure.
btw, I'm not saying free enterprise has no place in government. But, we need to be a lot more discerning. Remember, the key is that thee only function government is to improve our collective lives. Let that be a guiding principal.
You could say that any privatized governmental function serves as a tax break to the filthy rich... because we, the rank and file tax payers, pay the filthy rich to do a poor job of the government's work.
my basic thing: When people rearrange the structure of how publicly work gets done, it tends to change where the money winds up. "Rearrange" is a key word in that sentence... because it's like a deck of cards, a zero sum game. There will be an end result with something left over. In the end, who has received the greatest benefit?
The purpose of government... think about it... is to improve the lives of the governed. We come together to form agreements such as our constitution and laws in order to make our own lives better. Murder is illegal? Thank goodness! My life is better. I get to vote for anyone I choose to lead my country? Alright! My life is better. Pay taxes to build a few roads? OK... as long as we all pay a little bit for the new roads, I'm cool with that... because roads (often) improve my life. Government is for *us*. All of us. When it does anything, this should always be the driving principal. We, all together, pay lots of money to a public sector in order to improve our collective existence. Whenever some of *us* are benefiting more than others, we, the people, the owners of this nation and government, need to take a very close look at what's going on.
hm... I bought a book about a week ago that speaks to issues like this one. I haven't read it but I listened to the author speak a little. Did you know that big box store (like Wal-mart and Target) often don't pay sales tax to the government? They collect it, but they have deals with the government (local) which allows them to keep the sales tax money. The rationale behind this perk is that they (the big box stores) strengthen the local economy ... so the local government should subsidize their presence. Did you know that? And, what happens, of course, when a big box store moves in is all the local small stores providing the same services go out of business. This means (!!!) the small local business owners are subsidizing their own demise. Follow? The little guys are driven out of business. People go to work at big box stores and are paid less. And we, who used to own, run, and work at our local business now shop at the big box stores, pay "sales tax" because we are legally required to do so. This "sales tax", however is kept by this new store, as a subsidy. We pay "taxes" in order to help the filthy rich to destroy our locally owned and operated businesses.
This is not the kind of thing that is talked about much on TV. go figure.
btw, I'm not saying free enterprise has no place in government. But, we need to be a lot more discerning. Remember, the key is that thee only function government is to improve our collective lives. Let that be a guiding principal.