Posted by
Andrews on Saturday, April 26, 2008 5:26:44 PM
In my
last article, I mentioned in a footnote that the recent stimulus checks were partly based on long debunked Keynesian theories and party on the need for government to "do something" whenever there is a problem. That is what I want to discuss here, the problems caused by public pressures on the government to "do something" whenever a crisis strikes.
The problem is that the public has heard for so long that the government should have unlimited access to all matters, public and private, and that the government's powers should be unlimited. It has been the position of our politicians that the government can cure any problem, so long as they are not restricted by silly concepts of rights or limited government.
Taking the government at their word, as soon as any problem strikes, the citizens start to clamor for the government to "do something". Of course, this often leads to truly bad decisions, as the need to appear to be acting decisively is more important than the need to do anything effective. It is far more damaging for a political career to be seen as hesitating, even if the result is superior, than it is to have done something wrong quickly.
If we truly want a limited government, we need to break this mindset. The public needs to stop viewing every crisis as an opportunity for the state to expand its scope. We need to do a better job convincing people that
the state is a tool, and like all tools, is useful only when applied to an appropriate task. We would not try to fix a brain tumor with a hammer or a cocktail napkin, why do we try to solve economic problems with checks from the state?
Then again, when even the Republicans are pushing big government "compassionate conservative" solutions, what hope do we have? There is no longer a party of limited government to tell people that the state is not a panacea. Nor do I see McCain being the right man to act as standard bearer for a revival of conservative values.
Perhaps in 2012.