Saturday, March 8, 2014

DEMOCRACY



DEMOCRACY, WHAT'S GONE WRONG


The March 1st-7th issue of The Economist features an essay entitled WHAT'S GONE WRONG WITH DEMOCRACY, and how to revive it.  I strongly recommend you read this essay as it provides great insight into the world's current situation and where we, as a country, are headed. (more later)
In recent essays, I've written about the size of government and the consistent drum beat of screw ups occurring in government agencies at all levels. This is not a party, or a liberal vs conservative issue but, rather, a management/organizational issue. Typically, congress approves of some new department, agency, program and allocates funding. A political appointee heads it up, and off they go to pursue their mission. There's little, or no, supervision and no effort to tie funding to results. I don't know of a better way to insure that too much time and money will be spent accomplishing too little
Sometime later, there's a surprise: The VA hospital system is neglecting vets; the IRS is engaged in politicking, the health care rollout is a mess. Those of you with long memories can add, ad nauseam, to the list. There's nothing new here except that these problems will invariably grow in proportion to the size, complexity, and reach of government.
This is an appropriate place to insert a quote from the aforementioned essay:
  "But today, particularly in the West, the big dangers to democracy are harder to spot. One is the growing size of the state. The relentless expansion of government is reducing liberty and handing ever more power to special interests."
Ah democracy--like we had in the good ole days, before special interests took over. And Yes! Yes!, we've always had special interests and always will, but our current situation? How did we get here, and how can we recover? Who's benefiting from the destruction of our democracy and propping up the corruption in DC?
HINT: Follow the money.

The Economist, March 1st edition can be accessed on line at www.economist.com. Select 'print edition', 'previous issues'. And don't forget, you're paying to support your local library.

Joe Bakewell

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