Vast Necessity of Government...psych

A letter I wrote to a Friend:

I read this article and thought of your comment, "I recognize the vast needs that only government can meet, but I don't naively believe that it will meet those needs perfectly all or even some of the time."

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2011/02/04/crony_capitalism_or_raw_corruption__98852.html

If you believe the vast needs of the people should be met via government, which I don't, I argue the majority of these needs should be delivered via a more local form of government (i.e. state/local) because it's less susceptible to corruption and corporatism compared to a large, central federal government. Reasons:

1) There are 800,000 citizens to 1 member of congress...with such a big ratio, and so much power given to the federal government, the only interests that will be heard are those who have money, connections and other resources (i.e. corporations, unions, other shady special interests that want to suck off the powerful federal government's teat). State/local governments can better tailor policy to their citizens. For instance, San Francisco can do all the liberal shit it wants to, Texas can do all the conservative shit it wants to, and both can pay the price of their policies...of course, things like racism, sexism, etc. should not be tolerated and is the main reason we have a Supreme Court. Since the federal government will have less power, citizens will pay more attention to their local governments.

2) This is the way the founders wanted it. They gave the federal government limited powers in the Constitution and granted the states a lot of power. (side note: health care and insurance coverage does not affect interstate commerce...what's to stop the federal government from legislating that I buy a hat to protect me from skin cancer--it's absolutely ridiculous that members of Congress and the Oval Office, who are subject to the very corruption mentioned in this article, can force me to buy health insurance).

Overall, I largely believe that the federal government should NOT be allowed to distribute services that fulfill the vast needs of the people because the government by nature, is inefficient. The more power we give the federal government, the more we allow the feds to legislate our lives, the more we allow the feds to tax us and distribute our tax dollars, the more we invite powerful special interests to manipulate the federal government (i.e. politicians like Obama, McConnell, Pelosi, Reid, Ami Bera) into serving the powerful special interests wants. This causes inefficiency because usually what the special interests want is not the most efficient solution!

The system described above, what I know as "corporatism", is what we have had in the U.S. We don't have free-market capitalism, we have corporatism, and it's because the Republican and Democrat politicians and bureaucrats in Washington believe they can better serve the vast needs of the people compared to a free market. I don't buy it. The government can define the rules, but it should free markets.

I view my tax dollars as an investment, and the federal government is a HORRIBLE investment because it's an inefficient system. The returns are terrible and the costs usually far outweigh the benefits. There are better ways to serve the vast needs of the people than by the federal government, and I strongly believe that these needs are better served by private, free markets. The ones that can't be served by free markets should be administered by state and local governments, and defined and overseen by the citizens of those state and local governments.

At the end of the day, who knew Obama was going to be more of the same? I voted for him because I thought he would change the type of corruption mentioned in this article, but he didn't. He is the same as every other politician--and he still can't perfect markets...no one can.

Best,

John

PS: I dislike Republicans more than Democrats because the former say they want small government but tax and spend like the latter, which makes them full of shit. At least Democrats tell you they want more of our tax dollars to spend. Basically, they both suck. Just wanted to be clear.