An incompetent and inadequate government leads to a failed nation - not just a failed state.
There is now a fully fledged industry of private firefighters (complete with their own lobby group) who primarily work for insurance companies. This is a return to the old times (at least in Europe). Historically the firefighters were a private force in Europe. The US was an exception to have a public one from the start. Stopping the fire anywhere any time benefits the public on the whole. So I'd actually praise the people who hire their own private force.
Nonetheless, it is a symptom of inadequate government services that anyone, rich or poor, has to resort to such a thing. We are now a society with private schools, private hospitals, private police force, private firefighters, and soon (actually already in existence but not so overt yet) private military and private espionage and intelligence.
This detachment is not just in the services named above, but also in many businesses on the whole. In the past, being a railroad tycoon or an industrialist tied the fortunes of top echelon to the wellbeing of the country. This is not the case if you work in Wall St or Internet-based businesses. Facebook can run its business from anywhere in the world, ditto for Goldman Sachs. More importantly, what happens to the US, at least in the short term, has no direct effect on their business any more than what happens in China or Germany does.
The question then becomes, what will hold the society together? If one group of people can privately have everything that governments normally provide - what is the nature of their relationship to the rest of society and the (their?) government? |
