What would we do without government?

Bob Doyle, Columnist

If any objective observer were to make out a list of things that causes the most aggravation, drives people to write hostile letters, make angry comments to others and raises their blood pressure, what would be near the top?

Well, far out in front would be the government! What makes the government such a juicy target? The government is a faceless entity, not a particular person or group that one can picture or even personally know. Of course the government seems to have many tentacles that intrude into our lives. These include taxes, regulations, laws that we don’t like, forbidding certain substances based on age, etc.

We Americans pride ourselves on how much freedom we have. But the government seems to infringe on our doing what we want.

One naturally should consider the questions, “What if we didn’t have a government?”and “Would we be much better off?” Well, consider that our country is rich in many natural resources — maybe there is a way to spread these around so that government wouldn’t be necessary.

Then how could we be sure that people wouldn’t hoard what they could hold onto? (If we share our water, food, etc., you can never tell when they might get scarce and by not sharing, we would still have ours.) And then without government, we wouldn’t have to be concerned about property rights — there wouldn’t be any!

It would all come down to the mighty or better armed ruling the weak. Are there places like this in the world right now? Yes, those who long to free themselves of the U.S. government tyranny should move to Somalia where the local warlords are in charge.

If we choose to stay here and abolish government, then the more powerful countries of the world would jump right in and help themselves to our resources. America would be chopped up into colonies, just like Africa a century ago.

So if doing away with government is not a viable option, what keeps many people’s resentment of government continually simmering? There are two main groups that constantly stoke their listeners or devotees’ irritation against government.

Most talk show hosts know that to keep their listeners returning to their program, they have to bring up some new outrage to stir them up. Once these folks are enraged, they will want to listen the next day to keep up with developments.

What is the biggest target that talk radio hosts can aim at? (Hint: It’s bigger than the broad side of barn.) Why naturally, it’s the government! The government is involved in so many things, that the odds are that something will be done wrong or poorly.

Then it is the job of these talk show hosts to seize on any government impropriety and pass rapid judgment on how stupid the government is, that those in charge are fools, who are wasting your hard earned tax dollars.

Just imagine if a talk show host wanted to ridicule a local town; then they would constantly listen to a scanner at police and fire department frequencies and note any intoxicated drivers, domestic abuse cases, suspicious fires, etc. for that town.

Then on every occasion, this talk show host would crow about that town, making remarks as if the town was full of drunkards, spouse beaters, arsonists, etc. In a very short time, property values in that town would drop. People would go out of their way to avoid driving through that town.

The other group is within the government itself! It is ironic that some serving in public office have low regard for the government. It is analogous to a doctor working at a hospital who loathed people who were sick and went out of his way to ridicule them, seeing his patients as bags of defective organs.

These negative office holders often state that government will make a mess of anything it tries to do. Let private enterprise solve our problems. The free market will function in a more efficient way and cheaper to boot. Then to follow their own way of thinking, why are such people who despise the government or public service in the government itself?

Why did they campaign so hard, raise so much money to secure election to be part of something that they have such distaste for? Why do they accept very ample wages? (Rep. Roscoe Bartlett of the 6th District is a notable exception, converting all of his congressional salary to scholarships.) Why do these office holders accept excellent health care through the government and yet caution us about “socialized medicine”?

This evening at dusk, there are two planets that can be seen low in the western dusk about 8:50 p.m. On the left is the planet Mercury and 3 degrees (6 moon widths) to the right is the planet Saturn. Use binoculars from a place with a flat horizon to enhance your chance of seeing the two planets, one close (Mercury) and one far away (Saturn). From elsewhere in the solar system, the two planets would not appear close.

Tomorrow morning in the 6 a.m. eastern dawn, the crescent moon appears near the brilliant planet Venus.

Bob Doyle invites any comments or questions from readers; his phone number is (301) 687-7799 and his email is rdoyle@frostburg.edu .