Mike Shedlock highlighted a most trenchant comment on his blog today:
Hello Mish
I find it interesting that people who hate big corporations embrace the ever-growing nanny state. The reality is the nanny state is nothing but a gigantic corporation that hires those who would not be hired in the private workforce at prices far more than they are worth.
In many respects, government is no different than big business. Governments, like business want to grow. Bureaucrats always want more employees and bigger budgets.
The difference is the nanny state is run by politics not by profit. It is run for a political agenda.
If you want a perfect example of a corporation too big to succeed, it's the government.
Take a look at those protesting in Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio and elsewhere.
Who is protesting government cuts? Why it's government employees. They protest for their benefit, not the benefit of the public at large and they want government to use even more force to take what it needs.
What does it take to stop the madness?
3 comments:
I agree with what you say but this isn't the half of it. Big govt and big business get way too cozy.
Somebody has to fulfill the contracts for those political agendas, green energy being the current cause du jour.
(The eco-industrial complex??)
From the WSJ today:
If you want to understand better why so many states—from New York to Wisconsin to California—are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, consider this depressing statistic: Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.
It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees. Is it any wonder that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills?
Arguably the worst of it is that even as govt gets larger and does "more" it seems to do less of any real value. The roads are full of potholes, the teachers in my kids' schools can't spell or phrase a simple sentence, the cops blow you off if someone hits your car and drives away, ...
I had better quit before I get warmed up.
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