DENVER, CO – JUNE 16: The TSA security lines in the main terminal are crowded with vacation travelers on June 16, 2013, in Denver, Colorado. Located 25 miles from downtown, Denver International Airport is the largest airport in the United States. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
This thing we call “society,” which Thomas Paine correctly observed is separate and distinct from government, is basically an economic arrangement. The basis of and primary reason for society is people exchanging their various goods and services with each other.
I wonder how many hundreds or thousands of years more it will take for people to realize what should be blatantly obvious: that every set of exchanges in which government is heavily involved, by either subsidizing, regulating (aka “protecting established firms from new competition”), or downright monopolizing it, is painful. All these sectors (education, health care, air travel, etc) share the same characteristics: poor service, no accountability, high prices, incredibly outdated, bureaucratic procedures (paper forms, long lines, etc), and lack of choices or options, just to name a few.
Conversely, every industry in which government has low or zero involvement has precisely the opposite characteristics: constantly lower prices, better and always improving service, absolute accountability (you go to a competitor if you’re not happy), cutting edge technology (phone apps, automated texts, etc) and constantly improving ease of use and convenience.
Anyone not completely blinded by their emotions (mostly envy) can see glaringly obvious cause/effect relationships that lead inevitably to one conclusion:
One would think a light bulb would go on sooner or later for most people and government would be banished from most or all human interaction.
Instead, it’s “Thank you sir, may I have another!” ad infinitum.
Tom Mullen is the author of Where Do Conservatives and Liberals Come From? And What Ever Happened to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness? Part One and A Return to Common Sense: Reawakening Liberty in the Inhabitants of America.
Hello Tom, how’s your music going… YEP totally agree… when are the people going to wake up.. oh well… there must be a payoff they’re getting for the pain and struggle they put up with… thanks for your continued passion bringing to the light the insanity of having a government.. government is only for “CONTROL FREAKS”. I shall have no part in it… 🙂
It’s the wife abuse syndrome. Where the wife keeps allowing an abusive spouse to beat her and the kids whenever he feels like it. She just can’t live without being beaten. It wouldn’t be normal for her. Well society as a whole is just like that. They keep coming back for more abuse and ever vote for it. Sometimes they vote for someone who they hope will not abuse them as much but they keep voting for them…over and over. It’s a form of insanity.