GOOD MORNING AMERICA, WHERE ARE YOU?

Much like the song City of New Orleans, Saturday, July 18th, was another dreaded travel day. Like the proverbial downstream salmon, I shuffled off on business to sunny California, via what seemed like the other forty-nine! But the one good thing about multiple stops is that it gives one time to think.

Of course, that also seems to be the one thing lacking in American society today. People have simply lost their curiosity. We never seem to ask why about stuff, and just take what the media gives us at face value, even when the facts at hand don’t align to a logical truth.

Such is the state of the union today. We’re being given all sorts of things to wonder about. For example, our fine Vice President told us that we’re going bankrupt. The nation is out of money. We can’t pay our bills, and so we must avail ourselves of the single most effective method toward solvency. Spend more!

Huh?

Ok, putting that small incongruity aside, how about the line that the economy is getting better. Things are looking up. No more need to worry about our jobs, our mortgages, or our pension plans. Why, everything is safe and secure. Of course the news says unemployment is topping 11%, home foreclosures are nearly at an all-time high, and the stock market hovers around 9,000.

Wait a minute!

And what do we hear lately? Everyone who feels a little under the weather will no longer have to await the ravages of our evil industrialist health care system. Our good President and fine congress is coming to save the day. Nationalized health insurance will be cheap, easy, and with unlimited access. Drugs will cost less and there will be no more long lines in the emergency room. So don’t sweat life; just kick back and take it easy and you’re soon to be all better. Of course, under the proposed plan winding through the House, in order to make ends meet, you also will see rationing and a loss of benefits, especially if you’re closer to 90 than 30.

You mean someone has to pay for that?

As I was traveling through the terminals, I saw the Transportation Safety Authority (TSA) doing their best to keep the traveling public safe. They stand guard over the nation’s airways, and do their level best to make sure that nothing dangerous – you know, things like nail clippers and knitting needles – gets past their hedge.

Yet in studies over the years, the truth is, the TSA does no better at stopping contraband, than the airlines did for ages previous. Beyond better gadgetry, we really have no greater security than we did pre-911. But there has been a strong increase in one area of airline security. Because of the government take-over, it sure costs one heck of a lot more!

The principle is clear. Anything the government manages, they also manage to screw up. They come in, capture, reorganize, bloat the costs, hire and promote the least able of their kind, and in the end, they wind up doing more harm than good. Such is the impending fate of General Motors.

But why is this so? Why does the government have such a hard time making ends meet? When I was in college, I had the opportunity to study the secret art of public financing. I learned that there’s one small aspect of the government that clearly separates it from the likes of industry. The government is not allowed to make a profit!

Profit drives efficiency, and while a company must remain in the black to survive, should a civic entity do the same, it is seen as a problem. Having too much money remaining at the end of the fiscal year puts federal agencies in line to lose that same amount during the next year’s budget cycle. This is why frivolously spending “end of year” funds is a most cherished federal tradition.

Also, the government is service based, and produces extremely little that is marketable. Money flows in via taxation, and nothing of market value flows out into the economy. Granted, there are some paybacks in the form of arms and technology sales. But even those goods are provided by private contractors, and the government itself receives only a pittance in return. This is part of the reason why the great stimulus package of 2009 did nothing toward easing the recession. Small business, not the government, creates prosperity in a capitalist system, which, like it or not, is the very economic structure upon which the foundation of our nation was laid.

And as for accounts receivable, other than the IRS, the only other revenue generating sources are the various fees, fines, and penalties imposed by regulatory agencies like the EPA. Heck, since carbon dioxide is now a pollutant, there must be a way for the feds to make a buck with every breath, right?

Thus the whole process is geared toward losing – not making – money. And when they speak of “efficiency” within an agency, they’re actually only talking about ways to lose less over a longer period of time. Essentially, spending is the rule.

Thus, the idea that putting any form of private industry under government control to somehow make it more efficient, is much the same as saying you’re going to Seattle by boarding a train for New York. The rails just aren’t designed to take you to your desired destination, and the only thing you can control is the time at which you arrive where you don’t intend to be.

As I boarded my plane from Chicago to Denver, I found myself sitting next to a couple heading off on a relaxing excursion. We spoke of the man’s time as a soldier in Viet Nam, of their family, and other incidentals. But it wasn’t long before the topic evolved into politics. And as the discussion settled on health care, he suddenly came to the observation, “But wait, who’s going to pay for all of this?”

His words could not be truer. Who is going to pay for all of the health care, the automotive warranties, Social Security, the deteriorating infrastructure, and who knows what else will be grabbed in the near future. It’s all happening so fast, nobody thought to check the checkbook.

Worse yet, there is also the aspect of control. As we relinquish our freedom to choose our own health care, what sort of vehicle to drive, to own or carry a weapon, or even whether or not to dry our own laundry in our own back yards[i], we eventually will subjugate ourselves to the very entities we entrusted to protect us from subjugation.

Through excessive taxation and overt regulation, these “leaders” we elected to protect our freedoms have instead, bowed to the will of special interest and are hedging in the population, constricting individual choices to modify public behavior. Why else would congress propose a “fat tax”? Is it not my choice as to whether I decide on a Big Mack over a granola bar for lunch? According to the most recent discussions on Capitol Hill, the answer is “no”, and I can only have that choice if I’m willing to be punished through my wallet.

So here we are, one hundred forty three years after abolishing slavery, intent on indentured servitude.

Maybe the real question isn’t, “Who’s going to pay for all of this,” but rather, “What are they buying with our money?” After all, the real issues aren’t ones of reforming the health care system or providing greater opportunities for the “less fortunate”. The real question is will America remain as “the land of the free”?

Already, we are seeing congress buy the loyalty of voters with entitlements, and are twisting the system to the point where being more than 200 votes ahead in an election is only valid for liberals. Otherwise, keep counting until the conservative opponent falls more than 200 votes short, and all with the aid of ACORN. You know them; they’re the ones with over seventeen indictments for voter fraud, yet were invited by the President to help count the next census.

Won’t that effect re-districting in the next election?

And as I landed in Ontario California, I wondered, is this still the “home of the brave”? Will anyone – especially those few conservatives remaining in congress – stand up for our liberties? Is there anyone left to defend the essence of capitalism in American culture and society? The irony was not lost on me. The great Eden of the West Coast is exactly the way our leaders want to shape the nation. But there’s one small hole in their concept.

Utopia is broke!

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[i] http://www.laundrylist.org/index.php/advocacy/76-the-right-to-dry-campaign