Good Intentions Rarely Equal Good Results in Government

I wish to start with an example of the perpetual failure of good intentions under government from Ron Paul's book "The Revolution: A Manifestio":

"To get an appreciation for the difference between public and private administration in terms of bureaucracy and cost-effectiveness, consider this. The Brookings Institution's John Chubb once investigated the number of bureaucrats working in the central administration offices of the New York City public schools. Six telephone calls finally yeilded someone who knew the answer, but that person was not allowed to disclose it. Another six calls later, Chubb had at last pinned down someone who knew the answer and could tell him what it was: there were 6,000 bureaucrats working in the central office.

Then Chubb called the Archdiocese of New York, to find out the figure there. (The city's Catholic schools educated one-fifth as many students as did the governmnet-run school.) Chubb's first telephone call was taken by someone who did not know the answer. Here we go again, he thought. But after a moment she said, 'Wait a minute; let me count.' Her answer: 26."

The Revolution: A Manifestion (pgs. 76-77)


Now, here we have a perfect example of what is going on in our world today. There is no denying the education system in this country is lacking, and it is pretty clear that the urban areas suffer the most. So, under the guise of good intentions we have "helped" the school system of NYC by enlisting 6,000 bureaucrats, because clearly throwing money and minimally motivated employees at the problem inherently SOLVES the problem...right?

So what have we gotten from NYC, what tangible, possitive results can be seen by government interventionism in this instance?

What tangible, possitive results can be seen from the some $2 TRILLION dollars confiscated from the backs of American tax payers for the Federal Dept. of Education since its inception?

Our kids need government interventionism, right? We always need to give government the benefit of the doubt, right?

Well, here we also have the Archdiocese of New York, who then accounted for one-fifth as many students as did the government school. They are accountable, since they need to be so, since their is no bailout waiting for them. Because of that, theyre administators and bureaucrats totaled TWENTY SIX. And guess what? The kids coming out of that school system are more knowledgable as a direct result of this inherent accountability that is needed to prevent failure. Mediocrity is not accepted when failure is not an option.

You see government has no accountability when it operates under the guise of good intentions. The kids, the kids, we must do ANYTHING to help the kids! Put reason, common sense, and facts aside and embrace our interventionism. And sadly we willingly do.


Let's take a look at another example of good intentions failing miserably that I would never have considered: Foreign Aid.

Now, before I started thinking for myself and started letting reason, common sense, and facts guide my opinions, I often gave government the benefit of the doubt...BIG MISTAKE.

Foreign Aid is primarily used to prop up puppet governments, to arm nations for perpetual war, and to put the power and funding into the hands of an undesirable few instead of the PEOPLE that need the aid.

Americans, on their own, raise THREE times as much as our government for Foreign Aid. We donate our money to organizations that are as accountable as possible, and if they do not get the job done, we can take our money and give it a more accountable organization in the future. FREEDOM WORKS.

But government gives us no such choice. We cannot say that it is illogical to give $2 Billion a year to arm Israel while giving $6 Billion a year to arm her enemies. It creates perpetual foreign relations issues, as more money becomes the only remedy, EVEN IF THE WRONG PEOPLE ARE GETTING THE MONEY.

Continued...

Now, let's take a look at where we are currently at in our country. Here is a resource that I am sure most of you have seen before:

www.usdebtclock.org...

This lays out our current fiscal situation and what is acutally going on. You quickly see that we are...uhhh...F'd.

The situation of course is reverseable and we can most certainly return to a sound government and sound money, IF the People demand it. But the wrong debates and discussions are taking place, thus pushing us away from the real issues at hand, primarily the unsustainablity of the status quo.

So what's the problem? How is this system unsustainable and why?

Currently, we are spending $1 for every $.50 collected through taxation. The rest is either borrowed or monetized (printed) by the Federal Reserve. Borrowing comes at a cost of higher interest rates, where the FED is often more accomodating.

Because of this deficit spending philosophy, that the status quo is OK, we currently spend nearly $400 Billion every single year in interest alone on our irresponsible spending. This in and of itself is bad, but what is much worse is that the irresonsibilty doesn't stop there.

Because we monetize the debt, this burden isn't directly felt by the tax payer. Through their monetory policy (Incremental Inflationism, long-term depreciation of the US Dollar), they are able to facilitate the very government spending that continually benefits NO ONE in the long term.

Here is what we face:

In 2040, the ENTIRE federal budget will be consumed by two items: Medicare and Medicaid. We thus will have three options: Cut federal spending by 60%, double taxation across the board, or rapidly inflate the money to keep the status quo going. Hmm.. I wonder if we reach that point, which option will they go with?

All you have to do to confirm this is look at our unfunded liabilities, which now total over $105 TRILLION and is constantly growing. The $12 Trillion we currently have in debt and the $1 we spend for every $.50 we collect through taxes will PALE in comparison to the deficit spending and explosive debts that we NECESARILY face in the future.

It is no stretch to think that we will reach levels similar to Germany, 1914-1923, when they spent $1 for every $.15 collected through taxation. Of course all of this was done under the guise of good intentions and of course the people loved it, since they became more and more dependant on the government as the programs grew.

Eventually the situation was unsustainable and eventually the wheels fell off the bandwagon that everyone was so willing to hop on. This resulted in the absolute collapse of their currency and the decimation of their entire economy. The German mark, which had traditionally been strong, fell in value to the point that it took 42 BILLION of them to equal a single US penny by the peak.

Hans Sennholz has a great article on this on mises.org (an amazing site with a wealth of info from the great Austrian Economists that have consistently gotten it right):

mises.org...

In the end this highlights just another example of how those in power can never be given the benfit of the doubt. We must question them and must get answers instead of accepting an unsustainable and unsuccesful status quo.

It is impossible to think of our society as free when our dollar is being depricated and our monetary unit is not sound. It is impossible to think that we are free when the average American taxpayer must labor for 5 MONTHS A YEAR to accomodate his overlords with taxes. And all of it for what?

Good Intentions?

Give me freedom, liberty, equality, sound money, and sound government that adheres to the Constition ANY DAY, and WE, the People can solve our problems, NOT government bureaucrats who claim good intentions but deliver nothing but tyranny.

[edit on 17-10-2009 by Boom Slice]

I leave with this quote from Thomas Jefferson (1798):

"In questions of Power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischeif by the chains of the Constitution."

If only we had heeded his advice, we wouldn't be in this situation...