Rant against America part 1
I live in the United States, and there is a lot that I like about my country, but there is a whole lot that pisses me off. I'm going to try to break this thought up into several posts.
Every American growing up (and really everyone else all over the world thanks to our pervasive media) is instilled with these beliefs about our country.
1. America is a land of freedom
2. America is a democracy where the "people" are the government.
3. America is a country that stands for goodness around the world.
In some respects, I agree with the above concepts, but in some ways, I think it is obvious that the above are not true.
It is becoming increasing clear to me that our government is a self-perpetuating entity unto itself that needs to answer to a constituancy, but it is not the people. Our government (and by government, I mostly mean our federal government as local and state governments do not have many of the corrupting influences such as a standing army and unlimited ability to borrow money that the federal government has) was founded under the idea that it would be limited to only those activities necessary to allow the citizens to live free and productive lives. The government we have now is much different than that.
1. The President - For anyone to become President, he must raise a lot of money. The money comes from two primary source: industries and special interest groups. The to-be-President (and the President trying to get re-elected) must make certain allegiances to both the industries and the special interest groups. In both cases, the purpose is to get money to run the campaign and votes from those involved with those groups. In the end, the President (from either party) is in the business of meeting the needs of those who put him in office rather than what's best for the country as a whole.
2. The legislators - the legislators are in a similar situation as the President in that they need money and votes and tend to get them from industries and special interest groups. What makes it worse for legislators is that they don't have term limits, so this corrupting relationship often spans decades.
3. The Bureauocracy - this really entails any government body such as the military, any "Department of..." and any "... Administration." These groups live on money, and as such are at the mercy of the legislators and the President to get it. Since the government is the largest employer in our country, our country has little incentive to make any of these things smaller. The problem is that almost every one of these bureaucracies are dead-weight inefficiencies that could be handled either on a smaller scale by the government or completely by private industry. New ones are created all the time, and they are impossible to get to go away.
There are probably more aspects to the above that I could list, but you get the point. All this inefficiency begs the question in my mind of, how could the country that is arguably the richest, most advanced country in the world whose businesses have been so innovative and efficient as to literally take over the world have a government that is the pretty much the perfect example of everything that is detrimental to capitalism and free markets. I will explore my thoughts on that in another post.
Every American growing up (and really everyone else all over the world thanks to our pervasive media) is instilled with these beliefs about our country.
1. America is a land of freedom
2. America is a democracy where the "people" are the government.
3. America is a country that stands for goodness around the world.
In some respects, I agree with the above concepts, but in some ways, I think it is obvious that the above are not true.
It is becoming increasing clear to me that our government is a self-perpetuating entity unto itself that needs to answer to a constituancy, but it is not the people. Our government (and by government, I mostly mean our federal government as local and state governments do not have many of the corrupting influences such as a standing army and unlimited ability to borrow money that the federal government has) was founded under the idea that it would be limited to only those activities necessary to allow the citizens to live free and productive lives. The government we have now is much different than that.
1. The President - For anyone to become President, he must raise a lot of money. The money comes from two primary source: industries and special interest groups. The to-be-President (and the President trying to get re-elected) must make certain allegiances to both the industries and the special interest groups. In both cases, the purpose is to get money to run the campaign and votes from those involved with those groups. In the end, the President (from either party) is in the business of meeting the needs of those who put him in office rather than what's best for the country as a whole.
2. The legislators - the legislators are in a similar situation as the President in that they need money and votes and tend to get them from industries and special interest groups. What makes it worse for legislators is that they don't have term limits, so this corrupting relationship often spans decades.
3. The Bureauocracy - this really entails any government body such as the military, any "Department of..." and any "... Administration." These groups live on money, and as such are at the mercy of the legislators and the President to get it. Since the government is the largest employer in our country, our country has little incentive to make any of these things smaller. The problem is that almost every one of these bureaucracies are dead-weight inefficiencies that could be handled either on a smaller scale by the government or completely by private industry. New ones are created all the time, and they are impossible to get to go away.
There are probably more aspects to the above that I could list, but you get the point. All this inefficiency begs the question in my mind of, how could the country that is arguably the richest, most advanced country in the world whose businesses have been so innovative and efficient as to literally take over the world have a government that is the pretty much the perfect example of everything that is detrimental to capitalism and free markets. I will explore my thoughts on that in another post.
posted by y at 7:49 PM
1 Comments:
Yay for updates!
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