CONUNDRUM: Does America Work Anymore?
I’m wondering if the small problems of government have accumulated to the point that America is dead. If America works, who is left that it works for?
I’ve known a number of poor college students who had to get rid of their cars. They live on a few extra dollars a month. Eventually they get a ticket for a broken tail light or a parking fine. They don’t have the money to fix their vehicles right away or buy parking in a parking garage each night. The government charges penalties and fees that accumulate at a rate that would make a pay day lender proud. Soon, the poor kids sell their cars or motorcycles to pay the government fines. City Hall sees the tickets, fines, late fees and penalties as an easy way to pay for more city employees.
Rich people can pay off the graft as it accumulates. Rich people have garages and lawyers. The poor can’t afford to fight city hall as city hall dictates ever higher fees. City governments don’t work for many of our working poor.
Huge corporations in America face a similar problem. Here is an example where the Department of Justice demanded that Yahoo turn over their customer’s data. Yahoo objected, but the Justice Department slapped them with fines. The fines grew bigger each day. If Yahoo had appealed to the courts, the government could have driven the company into bankruptcy from the fines while judges pondered. Yahoo had no choice but to surrender in a matter of days.
You read that right; a major US company surrendered to our government because the government has unlimited power to destroy any company who objects. The only company that can resist the government is a company who is willing to be destroyed.
We have corporations moving to Canada, so I wonder if America even works for the rich. There is no enterprise if the government wants to shut down you or your company.
Who can tell the government “No!?” No company can afford to be honest and ethical in the face of government demands. There is no law, only the absolute power of a tyrant.
Journalists can’t ask too many questions about lost IRS e-mails without the government telling media companies who they can hire and who they can fire. There is no privacy if the government wants to snoop. This puts the Edward Snowden leaks in an entirely different light too. All this regulation and oversight is a drag on the economy.
One third of America is out of work. Our energy policy and open borders are making that worse rather than better. Politicians of both parties are serving their special interests rather than serving the people.
Power breeds corruption, and we see a government of unprecedented power. Political corruption follows close behind. Government today seems filled with corruption I only expected to see in the third world. President Obama has a phone and a pen and can dictate what laws say today, and he can change the laws again tomorrow depending on his latest campaign contributions or focus group results. That sounds like the actions of the famously corrupt Venezuelan President Hugo Chaves, but they are the actions of our American President Barack Obama. They are our policies now. We have imported more than Ebola and third world voters. We’ve imported third world corruption as well.
America doesn’t work for the working poor or the rich, unless they have government connections. I guess America works if you’re on welfare collecting a government check.
So I wonder who is left to pay America’s bills.
This brings up some serious questions, and I wish I had answers. If our many layers of government have made it impossible to succeed in the future, then why should any taxpayers feel an obligation to pay the debts of the past? The politicians made their huge debts in order to pay the bureaucrats and special interests who sent them campaign contributions. What do we owe the people who robbed the treasury of our tax money and our future? Can’t we send the debts to them? Will Republican legislators do a better job than the Democrats?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Image: Political cartoon by A.F.Branco ©2014