qpooch, of course you are right that governments achieve a great deal. It would be very hard not to if one were given 30% or 50% of a country's GNP every year to spend on your whims.
Of course too, governments do perform many desirable functions some of which, such as security and law, nobody else can provide.
The problem is, governments, like most people, love to spend money and there is no money better to spend than other people's. They also love bossing people around and there are bossy people on this planet whose primary pleasure in life comes from ordering others around. So they make many rules about who is allowed to do what and what you are not allowed to do and how to do it, when where, under what circumstances and you definitely are not allowed to inhale.
The question which matters is who gets the better return on investment? Given $1bn do you think Irwin and Co, $ill, you, me or whichever government you care to name would get the best return?
Governments do not get return on investment. They buy power. They tax and give that money to people who keep them in power, whether they are soldiers, voters, scientists who the voters like [such as climate change scientists, but not human cloning scientists], software engineers who support computer systems which support government functions, airlines who fly politicians and their swarms of hangers-on to APEC in the idyllic climes of Auckland, hotels here, me, hey, me! I better get in on the act quickly.
That money doesn't get a return on investment. The highway builders have a rough measure of value on where to build the next road, what surface to use etc, but they don't use the measure which matters, which is customer satisfaction and profitability. We have only one toll road in New Zealand.
The good thing about democracy is that there is a built-in balance to government power. Hitler, Stalin, Mao type governments are self-perpetuating limited only by the power they can collect around a ruling clique. In those pure power based governments there is no choice. In democracy, at least one has a small choice, though if one is a minority, which we all individually are, that is not much use.
It seems we are stuck with cruel and stupid rule of the majority mob or maniacal marauding by dictators.
Okay, you love them. I prefer $ill and Irwin who work in a world of voluntary choice rather than compulsion and confiscation.
Microsoft can only have goonsquads assassinating people with government agreement. If Microsoft has that, then they are the government and it would be called a dictatorship. Relax qpooch, $ill is your friend. Irwin will keep him on a short leash. Bill won't let either take over the government. Mob rule will see to that too.
Mqurice |
