FIVE THINGS AMERICANS NEED TO UNDERSTAND

FIVE THINGS AMERICANS NEED TO UNDERSTAND
ABOUT HOW GOVERNMENT REALLY WORKS
John Hawkins, Townhall.com   January 26, 2010

    One of the biggest problems we have in this country is that so few
Americans understand how our government works in the real world.  Since
that's the case, most people simply aren't capable of making an informed
judgment about whether politicians can deliver on a promise.  With that
in mind, it seems like a good idea to go back to basics and explain what
so many of us have already learned the hard way about the government.

    Government can't compete on even footing with the private sector:
There's a reason why you get better service at Wal-Mart than at the DMV.
It's no coincidence that FedEx makes a profit while the post office loses
billions.  Moreover, it's no shocker that Enron and Lehman Brothers are
gone, but FEMA and ICE are still around.  It's because the government
can't compete on an even footing with private industry.

    Unlike businesses, they don't have their own money on the line, most
of their employees advance based on seniority, not merit, and government
agencies don't pay a big price for failure.  To the contrary, if a
government agency does a lousy job, it just means it will probably get a
bigger budget the next year.

    What it comes down to is that the only way the government can compete
with a business is by outspending it or by rewriting the laws to make the
business less competitive with the government.

    Government action often creates more problems than it solves: People
are always clamoring for the government to "solve" problems, but what
they don't understand is that when the government "fixes" one problem, it
can often create another issue that may be even worse in the process.

    Our government's attempts to "fix" one problem or another led to the
length of the Great Depression, the destruction of the black family in
America via welfare, marriages shattering across America because of
no-fault divorces, gas lines in the seventies, the Savings and Loan
crisis, and the current banking crisis that was caused by a
government-created housing bubble.

    While the government is not the root of all evil, many of the worst
problems we have as a society were exacerbated or created by the
government in its clumsy attempts to fix some long forgotten mess.  This
is why government should be treated as a necessary evil, not a force for
good.

    It's extremely difficult to shrink government: Our political system
rewards spending money and punishes cutting spending. For example, if you
create a 300 million dollar a year "Giving Fluffy Kittens to Orphans
Program," people will love you for it. Animal shelters and pro-orphan
advocates will publicly laud you for your compassion while orphanages
around the country will funnel campaign cash into your coffers.

    Meanwhile, if you bring up the cost of the program, most Americans
will shrug their shoulders and say, "Ah, it's only 300 million dollars."
However, if you suggest cutting 50 million dollars from the "Giving
Fluffy Kittens to Orphans Program," you'll be accused of hating orphans
and kittens while every orphanage in the country will be screaming for
your blood. In other words, government spending is easy to get started,
but difficult to stop.

    That's why it's wise to be very hesitant to create any new
programs -- because billions can be frittered away on useless debacles
like Head Start that have proven to be nearly impossible to kill despite
the fact that they don't work.

    Our politicians lack expertise: Many people seem to attribute almost
super human abilities to our politicians, but the reality is far
different.  Most of the politicians in DC are bright people, but as a
general rule, they have a very superficial understanding of the subjects
their legislation impacts.  How can we expect people who barely know how
to use the internet to handle a subject as complex as network neutrality?

    How can we think someone who has worked in government all of his life
can truly understand how much a new regulation may hurt someone running a
small business?  Moreover, given the length of bills that are being
shoved through Congress and the fact that these bills are written in
legalese, many of our legislators undoubtedly don't even fully understand
what they're voting on half the time.  Point being, even when members of
Congress have good intentions, their lack of hands-on experience can lead
to disaster.

    The first priority of our politicians isn't solving our problems: As
the great Thomas Sowell has said:

    No one will really understand politics until they understand that
politicians are not trying to solve our problems.  They are trying to
solve their own problems -- of which getting elected and re-elected are
number one and number two.  Whatever is number three is far behind.

    Getting reelected may entail lying about what a bill does, punishing
people who don't deserve it because it's popular, rewarding special
interests who may help your campaign, and promoting bills that sound good
but don't work.  The sad truth is that politicians are often rewarded at
the ballot box for pushing policies that sound good, but ultimately do
great harm to the country.  That's all the more reason to limit the power
of government as much as possible.