So with every passing generation, we're told we just need one more government programme to fix our problems.
Oh every adjective known to man is used to describe the greedy business people and how they must be brought under control etc, etc,
But with government related issues, whatever problems can't be resolved is typically the fault of the former governing party and the answer is more of the same public policies that got us where we are at.
As Francisco Flores, former President of El Salvador pointed out "Governing is not an applause contest. It has ethical imperatives that demand honesty when facing problems…"
That's what the campaign trail is about. Once elected, solutions become necessary. Unfortunately, more government is seldom the answer.
Yet, we get one fiasco after another and there is never an honest reflection or accounting of the results of a government programme. So, as stated earlier, we get another government programme to expand the already failing or failed policy.
After all, politicians don't use their money to provide perverse incentives, they use taxpayer dollars, or continue to pile on the deficits and debt, which ultimately lead to a higher tax burden.
Seldom, if ever, is there proper reflection. Like Messrs Buchanan and Wagner, though, "We remain firm in our faith that Americans Bahamians can shape their own destiny."
The following quote from Democracy in Deficit (pdf) by Dr. James M. Buchanan and Dr. Richard E. Wagner seems appropriate:
"Like the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come, we hope that our conditional predictions will come to be refuted. We hope that our institutions and practices may be reformed in time to prevent ``what may be'' becoming ``what is.'' Like Robert Frost's traveler, we confront a choice between alternative roads.
On the one side, there lies the falsely attractive path toward ``national economic planning,'' a choice that would have us allow government to go beyond traditional bounds because it has failed even to fulfill its more limited promises. On the other side, there is the way of the free society, of men and women living within a constitutional contract that also keeps governments in well-chosen harness. This way, so well understood by Americans two centuries past, has been obscured by the underbrush of burgeoning bureaucracy. Will we, like Robert Frost's traveler, choose the road less traveled?"
It falls upon individuals in society to keep government in check. Particularly those of us that see the false prophecy of the fruit of an even larger government. History shows us that it's very sour.
Beware the planners.
