More government, the answer?

When you look at our nation’s faltering economy you see a lot of bad things. There’s high unemployment, massive stock losses, still relatively high foreclosure rates, as well as businesses and even banks failing. When we look at the situation we can’t help but wonder how can we get out of this? I have come to the conclusion that the government is our only hope.

If you look at the entire span of human history, government was virtually non-existent in the days of the cavemen. Hammurabi came later with his legal system, but so long as you didn’t break a law outlined there was no government control. Caesar and his successors tied together many different far away lands under the Roman Empire, but all Rome did with those lands was collect their taxes and provide military protection if needed. You come to the Middle Ages and for the first time the government takes a central role in a non-military, non-punishment arena. For the first time the government sets rules for resolving civil disputes between individuals. Around the 1800s business regulations were created regulating the way that business can be done. Now as we are in the first decade of the 21st century there is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, welfare and unemployment benefits, and we’re on the verge of universal health care.

Throughout all of human existence we have been slowly moving toward bigger government. Every mobility and communication advance is a new opportunity to expand government control in people’s lives. It seems like the natural progression of government size.

After all, the government sees the bigger picture and can be impartial. Therefore, wouldn’t it be best if the government can step in and tell us what we need to do. Maybe if the government could decide how much of which products should be produced. The government could set the prices so everything is priced fairly. If a company looks like it might face tough times in the future, the government can pre-emptively take the company over to avert failure.

In the end capitalism is so unfair. It makes some people rich who don’t deserve to be rich, like Paris Hilton, and it makes others poor. I’m sure if I looked really, really hard, I might be able to find a poor person that doesn’t deserve to be poor.

Yes, I’m talking about creating a centralized economy, but it’s the natural trend, right? Besides, we’re already most of the way there, why not just allow the government the last bit of power it needs to completely control the economy?

I know that all of these big government, centralized economy plans are unconstitutional, but seriously, we haven’t followed the Constitution in years. Why start now? If Tim Geithner, our highly esteemed Secretary of the Treasury says that we need a government that will seize private businesses for our nation to enjoy economic prosperity, then who am I to disagree? After all, the government should be protecting us, even if it means protecting us from our own entrepreneurial desires.

Under the failed capitalist model, the economy goes up and down and sometimes unpredictably. With centralized economies the market is always predictable. Look at the former Soviet Union and Cuba who both successfully implemented a strong centralized economy. With these countries you never saw millionaires lose half of their investment due to a fall in the market. And in countries with a centralized economy you never saw the kind of raw greed you do in America. In fact, people in these nations tend to live more humbly and are more grateful for what they have. I saw a news report just a few years ago where they showed some Cubans getting their first microwave, the first ones to ever be available to Cuban citizens. They were so ecstatic.

If we adopt a centralized government like the Obama administration wants we could be just as ecstatic as those Cubans.

We tried this whole experiment in freedom and liberty for over 200 years. And it completely failed us. At times like these we as a nation need to turn to our trusted bureaucrats in D.C. because they know what we need better than we do. If the government needs to force every CEO in America to resign so that government officials can handpick their cronies for the position, then that’s what it takes. After all, the economy, and the nation at large, is far too important to trust to mere citizens.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 10 2009. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry