They Had One Job To Do And The Government Failed At It

We try to keep government out of our lives. We neither want the government in our bedroom nor do we want them telling us what to think. We wanted them to do a few simple jobs that most of us needed. We wanted our children to learn to read, to write, and to know our history. We wanted the government to provide for common defense. We asked the government to mediate conflicts and stop criminals. We also asked for some infrastructure to promote travel and commerce. Given our recent history, it looks like that was too much to ask. It is important to learn why they failed.

We pushed the government into the education business for a couple of reasons. Parents with children wanted teachers they could trust. We thought that a public education would give us smarter voters who would make better decisions at the ballot box. We also thought that children of poor parents should have access to a basic education. That didn’t turn out the way we planned.

We’ve seen local, state, and federal agencies taken over by the teacher’s union. They not only ran the schools, but their political contributions ran the government for the benefit of the teachers rather than for the citizens. It became more important to promote special interests in school than to provide a basic education. We have whole school districts where students can’t read at grade level in school after school. Public education has declined for decades even though it consumes more and more money. Government schools were unable to give us what we wanted.

We asked politicians to give us reliable courts and first responders. We wanted a safe environment and safe food. That failed because of politics. It was more important to promote special interests than to lock up criminals and to keep our streets safe. It was more important to promote special interests than to have an effective military and safe food and drugs. It was more important to provide political kickbacks than to keep water reservoirs filled during peak fire season. It was more important to have DEI hires than to fight fires.

We’ve seen our legal system used to viciously harass political opponents. At the same time, the government can’t bring itself to jail repeat criminal offenders if they are illegal immigrants. We saw government strictly prosecute people who defended themselves while at the same time it returned violent-mentally-ill-addicts back onto the street to reoffend. We’ve seen bizarre environmental regulations drive costs through the roof. At the same time, these regulations caused our forests to burn out of control. Politicians served their vocal supporters while they ignored the common good.

We asked government to help provide safe transportation. It turns out that the kickbacks from public contracts were more important than the quality of the concrete and steel. It was more important to make DEI hires than to operate a safe and effective air traffic control system.

We asked government to give us something it is simply unable to provide. In our legislative system, concentrating benefits and diffusing costs is the formula for winning benefits for your cause, whether it be an ideological victory, economic gain for your industry, or just plain old-fashioned political graft. Politicians make amazing promises, but these incentives are always operating. We can limit this process of corruption, but only up to a point and only for a while.

The members of the general public people who are harmed by incompetence are spread out and disorganized. As a result, the self-interest of government officials outweighs the demand for competence. Legislators and bureaucrats spend other people’s money and advance their own interests. Overall, this system does not reward dedication and competence.

In practical terms, we’ve seen more and more of us take our children out of public schools. We run our own businesses and moved those businesses to friendly states. For those who remained behind, we learned that our neighbors know more about us than government bureaucrats who are a thousand miles away. At best, we want to provide local control of common problems. That won’t stop it, but local control limits the scope of graft and corruption that can enter the public bureaucracy.

We are asking politicians and bureaucrats to do too much and we are paying a horrible price. It is time to make do with less government and more inconvenient freedom.