QOTD

[unixronin]

Today, Washington politicians can busily “solve” one problem, knowing that unintended consequences from that “solution” will keep them and their friends all very busy tomorrow.  The people are ultimately left suffocating under the burden of Washington’s helping hands.  It is coming to a point where our economy, our dollar, and indeed, the rest of the world have had about all the help from Washington that they can stand.

— Ron Paul

This is something I’ve been saying for at least ten years now.  It is not in Washington’s interest to actually FIX problems.  Any problem that they actually successfully fix is one that they can’t use in the next term’s election campaign or to justify part of the next fiscal year’s budget.  The way our government currently works not only tolerates, but rewards bungling, incompetence, inefficiency and waste.  So of course we get more bungling, incompetence, inefficiency and waste.

As Ron observes, “Sadly, whatever is bad for the greater economy is good for the economy and job market in DC.”  America, and America’s government, operate at cross-purposes, because it is not in the interest of America’s government to govern America effectively and responsibly.

Comments

[johnkzin.livejournal.com]

Kinda like the health care system. It's not in their interest to _CURE_ you, it's in their interest to keep you in ongoing perpetual treatment, that requires someone (you, your health ins, etc.) to pay for medicine.

Or like Microsoft ... adding features is nice, but the real incentive to upgrade is "all of those problems you had with ($CURRENT_VERSION) are gone in the next version ... trust us". Without problems, if you're happy with the feature set of your current version, you'd have little/no incentive to upgrade to the next one.

[luxobscura.livejournal.com]

Yes and no. Premiums are where the revenue stream is. Treatments, especially long term ones, are frequently revenue-negative.

This is why everyone hates cancer and depression. They go on and on and on and suck up more cash than what comes in from copays and premiums.

[smandal.livejournal.com]

As H.L. Mencken so wonderfully put it, "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."

Politicians do what they do because they are granted access by voters.

As for the bailouts specifically, I'm having an interesting discussion on this very topic here (http://selfishgene.livejournal.com/57346.html?thread=153602#t153602).

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Ah, Ron Paul is just one of those kooks, you know?

[vetpsychwars.livejournal.com]

Yup. Same shit, 233 years later.

People are flawed. Shouldn't be a surprise when they show that they're flawed. And yet....

(Not just you, I'm always surprised as well, though I'm getting better at it.)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

"I am never surprised to see men wicked, but I am always surprised to see them not ashamed." — Jonathan Swift

I think much the same principle applies. Actually, what I'm always surprised at is that the majority of voters seem so totally blind to it, and that things had to get so bad before any significant number of people stood up and started demanding an accounting for the abuses.