Editorial
Front Page - Friday, February 26, 2010
View from the Cheap Seats
I am just sayin’
Bill James
William O. “Bill” James, Jr.
How much government is too much? We hear a lot today about government being too big and the need to bring it under control. We see people rallying in the streets and on FOX news demanding smaller government. Most people agree that we need less government, but what do we cut?
One man’s pork project is another man’s beloved project. A subsidy to one group is a life saver to another. How are we ever going to be able to reduce the size of government when we can’t decide exactly what we want government to do?
One group wants less regulation and oversight of their industry to enable higher profits while, at the same time, demanding tougher standards and limitations on other industries so that they will not be injured. No one wants to pay taxes on gas, but everyone wants a smooth ride on the interstate.
For a country of free men, we continuously expand on the criminal code making more and more things illegal and sentences longer and longer. We want to be tough on crime, but we don’t want to pay to house those that are incarcerated or do anything meaningful in the direction of helping to rehabilitate. How does a person spend a decade in prison and then get out and do well without help?
We spend billions of dollars on prescription medications in an attempt to cure every ailment and then warehouse millions of our citizens when they use non prescription drugs to self medicate.
We fight over the right to chose and then refuse to give any meaningful support to the underprivileged children in our country. We spend billions on wars and the rebuilding of areas that have been fighting for centuries while letting our own people starve. How can we as a country be so far in debt and have one hungry person?
We all recognize that the health system in our country is broken, yet we refuse to do anything to fix it. So often, it is not moving forward that is important to us. Rather, it is making sure the other guy doesn’t get ahead.
We buy more than we can pay for, all the while wanting even more. We are not happy with what we have, we are unhappy about what we have not. We prey on the poor with lottery tickets and use the money to send the middle class to college.
We spend our time watching people live their lives on tv rather than living our own. We watch news channels that only agree with what we believe and never open our minds to the ideas of others that disagree with us. We treat politics like a football game, and we wonder why we are having so much trouble getting anything meaningful done.
In the end, it is just as it has always been. Another chapter in a book that repeats itself over and over again until the reader falls asleep and drops the book on the floor. The problem will not resolve itself without the turning of a new page. While it is easier said then done, it is amazing what we can do as a country if we just work together. That much is clear, even in the CHEAP SEATS!
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