The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775 - they've had 234 years to
get it right; it is broke, and even though heavily subsidized, it can't
compete with private sector FedEx and UPS services.
Social Security was established in 1935 - they've had 74 years to get it
right; it is broke.
Fannie Mae was established in 1938 - they've had 71 years to get it
right; it is broke. Freddie Mac was established in 1970 - they've had
39 years to get it right; it is broke. Together Fannie and Freddie have
now led the entire world into the worst economic collapse in 80 years.
The War on Poverty was started in 1964 - they've had 45 years to get it
right; $1 trillion of our hard earned money is confiscated each year and
transferred to "the poor"; it hasn't worked.
Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965 - they've had 44 years to
get it right; they are both broke; and now our government dares to
mention them as models for all US health care.
AMTRAK was established in 1970 - they've had 39 years to get it right;
last year they bailed it out as it continues to run at a loss!
This year, a trillion dollars was committed in the massive political
payoff called the Stimulus Bill of 2009; it shows NO sign of working;
it's been used to increase the size of governments across America, and
raise government salaries while the rest of us suffer from economic
hardships. It has yet to create a single new private sector job. Our
national debt projections (approaching $10 trillion) have increased 400%
in the last six months.
"Cash for Clunkers" was established in 2009 and went broke in 2009 - -
after 80% of the cars purchased turned out to be produced by foreign
companies, and dealers nationwide are buried under bureaucratic
paperwork demanded by a government that is not yet paying them what was
promised.
So with a perfect 100% failure rate and a record that proves that each
and every "service" shoved down our throats by an over-reaching
government turns into disaster, how could any informed American trust
our government to run or even set policies for America's health care
system - - 17% of our economy?
Same Time Next Year
-
It’s been nearly a year since I wrote about the problems that come from
having 11 bosses who are not on the same page about anything, as well as
suggestion...
5 months ago
6 comments:
You forgot to mention the military, in the last decade alone we've spent $900,000,000,000 and counting. I've yet to see any ROI with that one.
I'll be the first in line to admit there is no shortage of places in which the government has no business meddling. But to insinuate that we're supposed to make money off government spending is missing the point entirely. The only reason for government, something strict constitutionalists and progressives can usually agree on, is to provide services the citizenry are unable to provide for themselves (of course they differ on where to draw those lines).
The preamble to the Constitution states quite clearly one of the ideals of this more perfect union is to provide for the general welfare, one of these days it would be nice if we could decide as a nation what exactly that entails.
Personally, I'd take a hit on everything mentioned in FDR's 2nd Bill of Rights simply because it's impossible to expect our society to move forward if a large portion of us consistently risk falling behind.
Brendan:
For full disclosure, I did not write this. It was one of those chain e-mails.
The message I got out of it was the US Gov't has not exactly been successful at many of their programs, why do we think they can do better with health insurance?
Bill
I know, it's be circulating for months.
I guess that's my point, I don't believe we can logically measure government success or failure the same way we do in the private sector. The stated purpose is not margins, ROI or growth but ideological improvement of society based on justice, domestic tranquility, common defense and general welfare. How we measure success in those areas is obviously still a matter of debate, however.
if one did any reading on history it is quite clear that many government programs/intervention have/has been successful..and then gone to far..industry is safer today..affirmative action was a success...organized labor was a huge part of the development of the middle class...our poor, mentally retarded, GI programs....problem is they became industry in themselves and with little oversight...or common sense
public service used to be just this..today it is big business and with little return..public service folks making huge paychecks and in many instances with little if any qualifications
I'd have to disagree on the military roi....pretty easy in my eyes
This is the kind of lazy cynicism that passes for historical analysis these days.
FedEx and UPS can't and don't try to provide schedule delivery to every home in the country. They grew rich on the best and easiest part of the market - business package delivery. There's no question that they excelled, but let's not believe for a minute that they could stay profitable delivering the mail.
Social Security is not broke. In the 74 years since it's been in existence, it's kept millions of elderly and disabled people alive.
While it's true that Fannie and Freddie are in trouble and were in the middle of the meltdown, let's not overlook the greed and arrogance that led to AIG, GM, and countless other businesses who stole or squandered billions and then either came to the government for help or who just went bankrupt and walked away from their debts.
The War on Poverty was not won and was not lost. It keeps people alive. Let's hear about the businesses that have tried to do anything at that scale, building and maintaining housing for the poor, teaching people to read, giving people medical treatment.
Medicare is not broke.
Where are the private trains providing passenger service to major and minor cities around the country?
And so on.
Capitalism is the best system for economic development in the world. The purpose of government and its programs is very different. Government in most areas is the payer of last resort, stepping in when private options have cannot meet the task. Public education is certainly deserving of much criticism, but home-schooling and private education, even when vouchers are present, can't meet the scale required to provide a basic level of education to our citizens.
There's a place for both government and private enterprise. We need both. We can't afford, however, to generalize the failures of either as a reason for dismissing them outright. It's stupid, dangerous, and wrong.
I'd recommend getting rid of all of those except Amtrak and the Post Office. My father's aunt told him about the problems with social security back in the 60's or early 70s.
Post a Comment