Political logic
The bubbling pot of populism is stewing up the theory that politicians are all self-seeking and that government bureaucrats spend their waking hours thinking up ways to create trouble for ordinary taxpayers.
This idea isn’t original. Back in the 19th century we had nihilists who threw bombs and threatened public security because they believed what the world needed was no government or state. They wanted a stateless, nonauthoritarian society.
Under such a society, presumably, if you wanted a road past your farm you’d contract with a road builder to build one.
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If you wanted your children educated, you would send them to private schools. If half the population wanted to move to a sunny coastal region they would do so and fight to obtain and defend their turf.
Today’s political activists think some measure of government is needed but taxes should be cut to the minimum. The political response of government was first to hold the line on taxes at a time of inflation, but it continued expansive programming, thus creating a burgeoning debt.
When this got expensive, the second response was to slash programs, even necessary programs, and to sharply reduce staff. So we successfully cut debt but left ourselves with a structure inadequate to provide the services we had come to expect.
So where do we go from here?
Do we settle for a further gradual push toward reduced government with privatization of all of our services, medical, social, educational, administrative? Do we want a nonauthoritarian society where there is no one to blame for our predicaments but ourselves?
Who on earth would we find to complain about in the coffee shop?
