<…counterproductive welfare services…education time-wasting>
OK, I think I understand you: governments are bad; they waste hard-earned money. If the government is bad, are corporations a better means of controlling the market place and the population? Do oil companies police themselves and their customers, or do they have a fiduciary responsibility to make as much money as they possible can – whatever the eventual environment impact? Precisely what entity should provide for the common defense, infrastructure, non-futile and non-counterproductive services that benefit the welfare of its subjects or citizens? Should all education be from private schools? Are you a strict libertarian, or are you just have a little fun while venting steam?
(If you never get to these questions, I’m certain to continue to enjoy your rants.)
The vast multitude of factors influencing a civilization (and more narrowly, a country) creates an unstable equilibrium that any governing entity must address in an open manner, IMO. I highly recommend a book by Jared Diamond, “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.” Prof. Diamond has a lecture available from the University of California TV website:
uctv.tv.
This one-hour lecture is a very good synopsis of the book. The book attempts to support a very generalized set of four factors that precede a collapse: 1) a group may fail to anticipate a problem before the problem actually arrives, 2) when the problem does arrive, the group may group may fail to perceive it, 3) after they [do] perceive it, they may fail even to try to solve it, and 4) they may try to solve it but may not succeed. This is taken from Chapter 14.
I posted comments on the moderated Qualcomm board about hubris in companies like Nokia. I think hubris can blind a country or civilization in the exact same manner as a company. Under not-uncommon circumstances the equilibrium becomes uncontrollably unstable and collapse soon follows.
Educating a population to make rational, informed decisions is absolutely, positively the most important responsibility of a government. Having done this, its national defense and common welfare will come about from taxes, properly levied or not. Methods of taxation should be continually discussed in public forums as the values and technologies of a country shift over time.
The intended ROI of an education should be the continuation of the best a civilization has to offer to the world, and to the collective history of our humanity.
I wish you wellness |
