Responsible
J.McLaughlin Homepage
Roughly forty thousand people die on roads every year. Injuries, time lost in blocks and accidents, property damage, and high insurance costs due to the high risk. Suppose you look at political statements, government press releases, media reports, expert commentary and analysis, and academic books. In that case, there are many causes: drunk driving, speeding, distraction, mechanical defects and engineering issues, weather, etc. But, you will hardly ever hear about the ultimate cause, the regulator or the government. I mean, think about someone slipping on a Walmart floor, getting sick by eating in a restaurant or by contaminated grocery items, or getting injured by the negligence of a doctor or hospital if a lawyer breaches the privacy of his or her client.
The manufacturers, distributors, retailers, providers, transporters, and communication channels are considered responsible for the well-being of their clients and customers. But, this equation gets upside down in the case of the government. Everything that the government owns is a menace. Defense, welfare, law enforcement, post office, DMV, and courts. All are marred with corruption, inefficiency, waste, and cronyism. Can you suit the government, such as Amazon, Walmart, McDonald’s, Apple, Levi’s, or Sony? Of course not. Because the government is not there to serve; it is there to boss around. Unlike all the other providers, it takes almost zero responsibility.
The government is a coercive institution. Its job is to make you do or stop you with the threat of violence or at gunpoint. It is a criminal enterprise or a gang. It cannot behave and work like a voluntary, peaceful, competitive, efficient, service-oriented, and creative business. It does not have any skin in the game. All it does is gamble on stolen money, aka taxes. It has no real responsibility. Results do not matter at all, especially in a democracy where they are temporary caretakers for a few years. They get rewarded by failure. Success is death for them. Failure means more funding and a more significant department next year. Success means no more need for their so-called services.
The government would always blame others, including the service receivers, for their failures. Whether you got shot at a traffic stop, died on the road, were forced to have strip searches at airports, were disabled for life by an FDA-approved drug, lost your business or job due to a lockdown, or lost your life in a war, it is always your or someone else’s fault. The government never takes responsibility or accepts fault; in most cases, you cannot hold it accountable. Most legislative bills have already inserted a clause providing complete immunity to the government and all of its officials. Legally, most government agencies are not even responsible for the reason for their existence. For example, the police are not legally responsible for your safety and security, FDA is not legally responsible for maintaining food and drug safety, intelligence agencies are not accountable for guaranteeing your privacy, welfare agencies aren’t responsible for hunger and suffering, FHA is not responsible for the housing of people in need, DOT is not responsible for your safety on the road.
Government agencies and departments generally have jobs, not responsibilities, and there is a logical reason why they exclude themselves from responsibilities. First, responsibilities are for sane and able adults, not immature and unskilled kids. The government is a childish and unskilled kid. Second, it is a one-size-fits-all blanket institution. Every intelligent person knows that one size never fits everyone. So, the government knows that its one-size-fits-all laws, regulations, rules, and codes can never solve anything. Those will only mess up things. So, do your completely unwanted and unneeded job and get away from all responsibility. You should pass the responsibility on to businesses, entrepreneurs, creators, innovators, inventors, and hard-working individuals.
In reality, wealth generation, job creation, economic growth, financial strength, stability, and peace are all on everyone and everything else except the government, which is there to boss around and steal wealth and money from the productive members of society to enrich themselves and their cronies. The economy grows because of government policies. But, when it goes down and shrinks, it is the fault of greedy capitalists. When jobs are abundant, it is a miracle created by the government, but when unemployment is high, companies are not hiring, allegedly by choice. When it is inflation, it is not because of the Fed’s printed trillions; it is because businesses are doing price gauging to lose business stupidly.
The fact is that history has shown us that the only thing that solves problems in the real world is competition. Every single political system, all being different forms of oligarchy, from gods to demigods, to pharoahs, to kings and emperors, to dictators to Democracies and Republics, has failed miserably in taking care of real significant issues of mankind, freedom, happiness, well-being, wealth generation, productivity, and efficiency. People who have coercive authority never had and will never have the ability and will to help people achieve these higher goals in their lives. The government is designed to take away, not to give. The world’s most prominent Democracy, India, was a complete mess until it embraced the open and free markets, and the worst dictatorship, China, was an utter mess until it embraced the free markets.
So, contrary to what we are told by public schools, crony corporate media, corrupt politicians, crooked academia, ignorant gurus, and sold-out technocrats, the political system has never been the differentiating factor. Every political system fails, ultimately. The only differentiating factors proven by history are freedom and freedom to exchange value voluntarily. This is the difference between North and South Korea, East and West Germany, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. America became the most prominent and prosperous economy in less than two hundred years when it had freedom and free markets. It is struggling under high regulations and government interventions.
So, my friends, stop falling for this strawman argument. Stop blaming freedom and free markets for the sins of the governments. The only real and historically proven solutions are freedom and free markets, utterly free from all government coercion.
