The Road called "Government Meddling"

Our new president wants to stimulate the economy. What is puzzling, however, is that this staunch advocate of change wants to pursue a path that is eerily similar to the one taken by his predecessor and archrival. He too believes that the most effective way to stimulate the economy is for the federal government to round up a huge number of dollars, idle dollars that presumably are lying about loose, and expertly and judiciously inject them into various parts of our nation’s ailing economic system.

The plan offers some tantalizing possibilities, to be sure, if you are trying to gradually kill off free enterprise and replace it with some form of socialism. But is an incremental transition to socialism the best way for America to get back on its feet--and stay there? Socialism, you will recall, is an economic theory that advocates government ownership and management of the means of production as well as the distribution of the goods produced.

One of the things, among others, that makes socialism especially problematic as a suitable remedy for the nation’s economic woes is that our government’s record in management is dismal at best. So even if the executives at General Motors can’t manage their company, as they’ve clearly demonstrated they can’t, what earthly reason do we have for believing bumbling federal bureaucrats can oversee it any better?

Remember, these are the people who presently are managing the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Federal Drug Administration, and so forth. These are the people who ardently believe it takes four to five people to do a one-man/woman job. Sure, socialism will doubtless create jobs, but what will it do to production? And more importantly, will it create wealth, honest to goodness wealth?

That is rather doubtful. Only motivated individuals can produce wealth, individuals who can recognize, seize and develop an opportunity. Granted, once enterprising individuals have produced wealth, government may misuse its power and redirect it, but government cannot, of itself, produce it. And by arbitrarily redistributing it, government can and does kill the individual incentive and motivation that were indispensable ingredients in initially creating it.

If government would give back to the people a genuine sense that hard work and prudent living pays off in this country, then the nation’s economy soon would revive. But if government stubbornly continues its present course of robbing the industrious while rewarding the idle and unproductive, then the outlook doesn’t look promising.

And by the way, the course selected by our new president does not constitute change. It’s the same old slippery road we’ve been sliding down for decades. It’s the road called “Government Meddling,” and it’s the road that led us into our present crisis.

Credentials and Qualifications

Last week a coura-geous and clear thinking airline pilot made a success-ful emer-gency landing in the Hudson River. Fortunately for all on board, the Federal Aviation Administration holds airline pilots to extremely high levels of competency and accountability.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the safety and welfare of our country as a whole, voters do not hold those who direct the federal government, the men and women who occupy our nation’s highest offices, to similarly high standards.

It is ironic that the inept politicians who steer our ship of state, those who carry the fate of millions in their hands, may blunder time and time again, putting us all repeatedly at risk, and yet they are permitted to retain their prestigious and high-profile positions.

Why is it that we require more of those whose actions may endanger 100 people than we do of those whose actions may endanger millions?

In light of the severe financial debacle that recently has engulfed our country, a disaster that is due largely to the incompetence and inattention of our leaders, isn’t it about time we voters started looking more deeply into the qualifications of those whose hands are upon the nation’s helm? Shouldn’t we be inquiring into their credentials and backgrounds a little more thoroughly?

What does it say about us, as citizens of a free and democratic society, when we are willing to go on exposing ourselves and our children to avoidable dangers and hardships simply because we are too lazy to look into the qualifications of those who lead us or aspire to lead us?

Nevada's Misfit Child

If one were to liken the cities and towns of Nevada to children in a family, Las Vegas most definitely would be Nevada’s problem child.

While Nevada’s cities generally are proper, practical and benevolent, Las Vegas is vulgar, flamboyant and self-centered. While Nevada’s cities generally are sincere, sensitive and friendly, Las Vegas is artificial, crass and pitiless. In short, Las Vegas is the kid brother who outgrew his family’s frontier values and roots as well as his britches.

One has only to be the right mixture of historian and psychologist, however, to understand how this bitter misfortune befell our otherwise upstanding family. Simply put, Las Vegas doesn’t fit in because its past is rooted not in Nevada but in Arizona.

When Nevada was admitted to the Union in 1864 its southern boundary was not set as it is today. The southern portion of what is now Nye County and all of what is now Clark County were part of the Arizona Territory.

In 1866 Congress generously offered to Nevada an unsightly horn-shaped expanse of rock and sand that was protruding awkwardly from Arizona’s northwest corner. The territory was optimistically calling this unproductive and revolting tract of unsettled dust Mojave County. As there was no comparable horn poking out of the other side of Arizona, it is supposed Congress thought the uncouth young territory needed some judicious trimming.

In 1867 Nevada’s legislature, at the urging of Governor Blasdel, said yes to Congress’ kind invitation. The jagged and appalling bump was then severed from Arizona, over anguished shrieks of protest, and grafted onto Nevada’s posterior. Congress, ever in search of balance and symmetry, was now well satisfied. Arizona, on the other hand, felt betrayed, and grew sullen and moody.

In the early 1900s a railroad was constructed across the furthermost reaches of southern Nevada. Out of that promiscuous and frenzied merger of steel rails and former Arizona dirt Las Vegas was born. Eventually the homely and precocious village grew into a city, and because its parentage was murky and dubious, it developed mental problems and went through an identity crisis. In order to prove it was Nevada’s most sophisticated and successful city, it has for many years been over-compensating and behaving like a fool.

One, of course, does not like to speak unkindly of a family member, but there in a nutshell you have it, the gruesome tale of how Arizona Territory lost a hideous antler and how Las Vegas, Nevada’s misfit child, was born out of it.

Unfortunately the story does not end there. Now our malignant sibling to the south wants to greedily siphon water from other areas of the state to continue its excessive and wanton lifestyle. And it is making frightening progress.

So what can we do? What steps can decent Nevadans take to stop this unrestrained fiend, this malevolent monster we once called a brother?

There remains to us one tempting solution, a long shot, to be sure, but one that must be seriously considered by all respectable Nevadans.

If the citizens of Arizona are willing to take it back, we could return to them that now festering, ghastly bulge they formerly and proudly were calling Mojave County.

Individuals

A nation is composed of individuals. If those individuals are strong and enterprising, the nation is strong and enterprising. On the other hand, if the na-tion is comprised of weak, sluggish individ-uals, the nation itself is weak and sluggish.

With that in mind, one might expect govern-ment to be fully en-gaged in a determined effort to cultivate strong, capable individuals. After all, in a competitive and often ruthless world, it would seem absurd and irrational to be doing otherwise.

So why is our government doing otherwise? Why is our government so intent upon tempering or removing all of life’s realities and challenges, all the things that make individuals strong and resilient? Why is our government ceaselessly devising programs aimed at reducing the vigor, stamina and hardiness of its individual citizens? Why is our government so bent upon creating an incompetent and enfeebled society? Don’t our leaders, our highly paid public servants in Washington, see that government assistance can be carried to the point where it is hindering us more than it is helping us? Can’t they see that by continuing to implement these unsound policies they are undermining the very security of our nation?

Americans, as we are all aware, have never been ordinary individuals. Historically they have been daring and determined individuals. We must remember that we are the children of individuals who crossed a dangerous sea in fragile boats to come to a new and untamed land. We are the children of individuals who stood up to and fought a mighty nation to gain freedom and independence. We are the children of individuals who traversed mountains and deserts to find better opportunities for themselves and their families. We are the children of individuals who fought two world wars, not to preserve our nation alone but to rescue the entire world from the grip of tyranny. We are the children of individuals who voluntarily and unflinchingly faced harsh realities and difficult challenges, and grew stronger because of it. Do we want to be remembered as the generation that abandoned that path, that discarded those proud and rich traditions?

I certainly don’t. And if you don’t either, it’s time we started saying no thanks to government. It’s time we started squarely facing life’s uncertainties and challenges. It’s time we started being accountable for our actions. It’s time we began making our own way again, as individuals.

The survival of our nation depends on it.