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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dave Reed who wrote (21775)	12/18/1998 11:17:00 AM
From: Brad Bolen	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 67261

OT. RE; This century is littered with the graves of millions of people who have been slaughtered by governments...you've picked a strange ally in your quest to cure poverty. I respectfully disagree. This century is littered with the graves of people slaughtered by other people. Governments only help facilitate or avoid such problems. Democracies like ours let off steam via bloodless revolutions --elections. Dictatorships let off steam via the more traditional --bloody-- method. The people in each, however, are basically the same. Or, as you anti-Government types might put it: "Governments don't kill people. People do." - - - Can Government help the poor? Probably, even such as statement as this is too vague. What does one mean by 'help' and how does one measure it? But I think we can get some idea that it does. Just go ask any individual who needs aid and is receiving it....food stamps for example. That individual might take exception with the notion you suppose (and maybe even a few individuals who were around before Mean-Old-Government invented food stamps in the first place?). But maybe it is not that particular individual you are addressing, but rather, the ideal. For example, a Libertarian (or conservative) might make an argument against Mean-Old-Government's health standards at restaurants (they always have). Besides being a pain to an owners ambitions, they might argue that Government regulations may even cost money, thus reducing our GNP. After all, competition is supposed to cure problems anyway, not Mean-Old Government. If word gets out that people are being food poisoned at a particular store, then people will stop going there and the business will dry up. Thus, the sanitary stores survive and everybody is better off. No more food poisoning! No one will ever cut corners again. No more greed or laziness. Who knows, maybe it wasn't that restaurant's fault anyway. Perhaps it got its meat from the wrong meat packing plant (we know from history that the meat packing industry doesn't need Mean-Old-Government getting involved). Never mind the individual that dies due to an careless, lazy, or unethical owner. That won't happen after competition rears its head. Competition works, Mean-Old-Government doesn't. Funny how people forget the reasons Mean-Old-Governent (the people?) gets involved at all. Its the same old song: Auto Safety--surely a car company wouldn't cut corners to stay competitive. No need for Mean-Old-Government... People would only buy safe cars (and maybe they could even go to the the 'liberal' media to read reports and learn which cars are safest!). The Environment--maybe those car companies would voluntarily make smogless engines. (Just ask the good folks in Mexico City). Maybe citizens would only buy pollutionless models? Competition, pure and simple? (An amusing aside: a quote I heard on a conservative TV show --there are conservative TV shows? -- "the air is cleaner than it has ever been, so you see, why did we need Government getting involved in the first place!") And those horrible military campaigns you spoke of? What better proof of the evils of Government? Instead of fighting where it is 'none of our business' we should have kept the pre WWII isolationist model. Wait till problems are on our doorstep. No room for Art here. Never take a chance on Mean-Old-Government (us?) making mistakes, Hitler be damned. At least we (Libertarians?) are consistent with our policy...even at the expense of reality. I will say again, I don't like Government any better than you. But God help us without it. B.