All the cool websites now feature a blog. So here is the Obligatory Blog, my therapy for the world to share. I hope it will be good for you...
The ObBlog for Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Please Don't Help...
Let me show my age. Maybe you remember an overplayed commercial from a long time ago for a headache remedy. The lady was working in the kitchen, and her mother made a suggestion or reached to help out, and she screamed at Mom, "Mother -- Please! I'd rather do it myself!" Then they went on to peddle the painkiller, and show Mom happily helping out, after the miracle drug removed the source of irritation.
Why would I make this obscure reference? Because the frustration she showed is the same way I feel about my government. Like an overzealous mother, the government in their arrogant greed, feels they can buy your favor (read: votes) by taking care of you in some manner. I am sure the founding fathers framing the government never dreamed (in their worst nightmare) of the things our leaders are trying to do for us. There is a perceived need for a utopian world, and the politicians somehow feel a law or agency will do what people don't, or won't, or didn't.
We all are pained by the loss of life in the recent commuter/freight train crash. It may be all the worse if reports are true, that the engineer was text messaging. So we are already hearing calls to make a law of what should just be obvious. The Metrolink could just issue a statement saying engineers will be fired for doing that. Better yet, they could just fire employees who exhibit poor judgement in any situation. We don't need a cadre of lawyers and legislators dancing on the corpses of those poor dead souls as they pat themselves on the back about a piece of legislation that makes the obvious into a cumbersome law. Then they can claim they authored legislation that put a stop to this, and saved countless lives and grief.
Mother, Please, I'd rather do it myself! You talk about poor behavior, and then some damn fool thinks a law will magically change what people should know, or have been told by their boss, or better yet, their parents. Laws. Bail-outs. Welfare. There is a place for these things, I guess, but we have made a practice out of jumping in and doing what people, not government, should do. Anything the government does is horribly diluted and cumbersome. It takes twenty dollars to get one dollar to the needy. Couldn't we just keep the tax money and hire some of these people to mow our lawns? Couldn't we just tell employees we don't pay them to text their friends, and they will be fired if they do? Why would anyone text, when the same device allows them to talk, anyway? But that's another rant...
You talk about your "moral hazards". That seems to be the phrase lately for people picking up bad habits because they work. The more the government tries to do the less it gets done, and the more it costs. Eventually it grinds to a halt, drags the economy under with it. Example? Look at the California budget process. Don't get me started. Like I said, that's another rant for another day!
So how was your morning coffee?
Cheers -- I'm John Dyer