On the anti-government crowd

You’ve had your tax breaks for 10 years, where are the jobs?

I shared this provocative photo on my Facebook page on Tuesday and it sparked a spirited discussion drawing over 25 comments between my friends who see the value in government and those who don’t. I woke up with this on my mind and the whole debate drives me nuts.

I used to buy into the whole libertarian outlook over a decade ago and admit on paper it makes a lot of sense. One of the problems is that it assumes that everyone starts on a level playing field when they most assuredly do not. The other problem is that it’s predicated on some Pollyanna world where everyone can be taken at his word and as we’ve seen time and time again that does not match reality. Let’s take a look at the lying scumbags problem first.

Cheating is often rewarded richly in the business world and lying sacks of shit often walk away with mountains of cash. Is it asking too much for some accountability? Hey, you want to run the economy off a cliff by shorting the worthless mortgages you are selling and then ask me not only for my tax money to save your ass but also give you a goddamn bonus for doing it? Well, gee, that sounds like a swell deal! These assclowns don’t need bonuses, they need orange jumpsuits and cozy cells to wear them in! If we had working regulation (and any sense of justice) we would be so much better off.

A large local pharmaceutical company just settled a case with the government to the tune of three billion dollars – let me say that again – a fine of $3,000,000,000 for actively bribing doctors to prescribe its medicine for dangerous, untested, off-label uses. This company put the public’s health at risk for the sake of profit. These assholes should be rotting in jail cells! Now tell me, should the Food and Drug Administration be dismantled or perhaps beefed up to catch the next group of lying, cheating fuckers?

And what about our crumbling highways? When the federal gas tax was last adjusted a gallon of gas averaged $1.20 and the rate of 18.4 cents was over 15% of that gallon’s cost. Since then oil prices have skyrocketed; more drivers have been added to the roads; and our infrastructure has crumbled as repair after expensive repair has been deferred. Some businesses (particularly transportation businesses) fight tooth and nail against the government raising any money to fix them, content to let them crumble rather than pay their fair share for the value they create using those roads. It drives me nuts.

And don’t get me started on “well, I worked my way up, anyone can do it” argument! One of my friends offered this up during the Facebook thread and it made me want to pummel him. It sure is easy to judge the poor by puffing up one’s chest and saying “I’m a self-made man, what’s wrong with them?” but the reality is often far different. When the deck is stacked so completely against someone due to overt (or more commonly, covert) discrimination, lack of transportation, lack of credit, lack of education choices, lack of safety and security, lack of good role models, and simply lack of the haves even giving a damn about the have nots, is it any wonder that poverty becomes a vicious cycle?

Many of my neighbors are struggling to make ends meet. They are up to their eyeballs in alligators so they can’t drain the swamp! If you’re a kid in a single-parent household and your mom is working 12 hour days at the only job she can find, a mom who was perhaps tricked into being buried under massive credit card debt carrying outrageous interest rates, do you think you’ll get the after-school tutoring you need for a successful education? Think your mom will play an active role in your school’s PTA? If you’re going to bed hungry many nights, how can you focus on your schooling? Better have an awful amount of luck!

So many people of privilege overlook the considerable advantages that put them there and then look down on others still mired in financial servitude caused by predatory lending, discrimination, or the myriad of other roadblocks society puts in their way. I believe at the very least that all kids should have the right to live in a safe home, to have a good education, and to go to bed with full stomachs. This does not mean they all need free tickets to DisneyWorld but we as a society needs to ensure their basic needs are met if we expect them to grow up to be productive members of society. While that might sound expensive, or Big Brother-ish to some, it’s a hell of a lot cheaper to provide kids with a future than it is to provide them with a prison cell as adults.