I have heard rumors that there is a small town somewhere in middle Indiana where the mayor, the town councilors, and the town manager, and all the rest of the staff care deeply about their constituents and the community at large.
But it's just a rumor. And it is certainly not true for any community where I have lived. Or any town or city that I read about in the newspaper. Do some of these government officials care? Sure, maybe. But only to a point. They care more about themselves, the road in front of their house, or business, the city contract with their brother-in-law, getting a salary raise for the whole sanitation department in return for their votes in the coming re-election. And don't forget that city council member whose family owns that large tract of land where they're planning to build the new hospital.
And this is just the sort of nonsense that goes on at the local level. Your state government is orders of magnitude worse. And your federal government is orders of magnitude worse than that. This is true for every government and every level of government. It's truly frightening to think about the United Nations.
But let's start small: Your homeowner's association. Actually your HOA gives us a good illustration as to what happens in government. Do your neighbors who serve on the board of the HOA care about all the right things? Many times they absolutely do. But what happens? Well, they move. Or, they have other commitments. And new people have to be elected to the board. And here is what is so important to understand: Sooner or later, the people who are drawn to serve on such boards do not have the communities' interest in their hearts. No, no they are in it for themselves. These are the people who always run for these seats. Sometimes they fail to gain a seat. But not to worry, they'll run again in the next election. Over time, they learn to say all the right things to win. And sooner or later they do win.
And this brings us back to government in general and what is so important that we all understand. The people drawn to government service, either as elected officials or employees, do not care about you. They care about themselves. Their pocketbooks, their families, their agendas. And let's be honest, many of them just want the power to tell other people how to live. If you question this, just have a look at the people on your HOA board.
Or your local school board. Or the teachers they hire. They don't care if little Johnny learns to read. Not really. So what do they care about? More money, of course. I've never met a teacher who did not harp on about how little she is paid. And they care deeply that little Johnny develops the correct worldview. Their worldview. So an unholy alliance develops between the politicians who give teachers what they want in return for the teachers' votes. This is true for all government employee groups.
Where does that leave you?
Well, paying for it of course. You pay for it all. You get nothing or worse than nothing in return. They don't care about you; they only want to take advantage of you.
Now, are some governments worse than others? Surely so. But at my advanced age, here is what I have come to understand. There is no such thing as good government. They are all bad. It's just a question of how bad? I am no longer surprised by any level of ineptitude or greed. Or greed which masquerades as ineptitude.
Henry David Thoreau said: Government is best which governs least. Well, that went out the window with the sixteenth amendment.
So where are we today? Well we have an ever declining number of people who are paying for everything. But wait just a minute, teachers pay taxes, right? So let's not use taxes as the threshold. As an alternative, I suggest, as an intellectual exercise, we divide the population into Net Wealth Creators and Net Wealth Consumers.
First, admittedly, there's lots of gray. Sure, teachers are net wealth consumers. But if they are doing their job, the next generation will have its share of net wealth creators, largely thanks to its teachers. So the question becomes, are the teachers doing their job?
A functional society needs both wealth creators and wealth consumers. My point is this: The balance between these two groups has over the last century shifted, and continues to shift, towards the consumers. And this shift has been facilitated by government buying the wealth consumers' votes. This is why so many people tolerate and even celebrate bad government.
So we have corrupt government supported by the wealth consumers. Where are you in that dynamic?
If you are any sort of government employee or contractor, I guess you don't see a problem. Same for any private organization largely or entirely funded by government – Say you are in the health care field, or you work for a private university. Sure, all of you pay a portion of your salary in taxes. But what we should all understand is that your entire salary is from other peoples' taxes.
And somebody has to create the wealth to keep this pyramid scheme afloat. Ultimately, all taxes are paid by wealth creators.
So what is the solution? There's not enough of us to vote them out of office. This is the constant argument of the left. If you don't like it, you can vote them out.
But this is just not true. There are too many of them and too few of us. The unlimited flow of money (our money) into government coffers has corrupted our democracy with purchased votes. This is vote buying on a massive scale. To the point where, I would argue, that our productive democracy is now over.
Remember, at one time, most of us were farmers. As we moved off the farm, we also moved from wealth producers to wealth consumers.
What we have now is a democracy of looters and moochers and parasites.
At this point, the net wealth creators are simply the slaves of the net wealth consumers. And believe me, the government elites and their wealth consuming voters will keep this system going for as long as they can continue to milk it. And it can go on almost indefinitely, but only if the wealth creators allow it.
This is the Scandinavian system we see today. The capitalists are the slaves of the socialists. And I don't mean capitalist as in the guy who runs the country's largest bank. I mean the local plumbing contractor, the vegetable farmer, the restaurateur, and guy who runs the bakery down the street. The capitalists create wealth and turn it over to the socialists to be distributed as they see fit. And this goes on because the Scandinavian capitalists allow it. They have completely capitulated to their wealth consuming masters.
Why? Why don't they stop the gravy train? Why don't they flee? I would argue culture and family and perhaps guilt. Plus, as you look around the world, the question of where would we go becomes paramount. If you run the country's largest bank, it might be easy to move to the Channel Islands. But if you run a bakery?
So, instead, they tolerate the theft.
Do you?