I was just minding my own business when this headline scrolled its way before my eyes. “6 things other governments provide that Americans still have to pay for.”
I think it should read “Six things other governments provide for which Americans still have to pay,” but I can write in cursive and also believe that there are thousands of buying decisions laundered through government that every-day Americans are more qualified to make, including the six things in this MSN article.
And then there’s the most obvious issue of all. Stupid journalists who don’t know from whom Government gets “its” money.
Or who do not care.
This headline is just as likely working to reinforce the lie that when the government pays you don’t have tooooooo! (Can you picture “scrubbing bubbles” adorned with Democrat party logos swirling down the drain with your hard earned cash? I can!)
The government has no money. It has to find ways to take it from productive people and industries before it can spend it. But you knew that. And you probably know the MSN article line up of “things” that other governments provide. Governments that are, not unsurprisingly, less productive than our own.
Or maybe we’ll surprise you.
But not with this one. College. Student’s are racking up debt. They are but only because (at least in ‘Merica) the government has handed out loans like candy for degree programs that have no real-world value. First, everyone insists kids need to go to college. Second, Liberal Universities crank up costs because they know the Feds will okay the loans. Third, there’s zero incentive to find efficiency so (of course) costs rise and student debt is enormous.
I wrote about this in more detail here.
Bonus feature: in reporting this cost we see these words. “However, the government pays for tuition with taxpayer money, so “free” is a relative cost.” Relative to the “government stole it from you” to give it to the kid with the useless degree in “left-handed albino lesbian studies” who can’t even get a job at McDonald’s because government interference in wage policy outsourced his only remaining future career options to a digital kiosk.
Next, single-payer health care “is easy and fair.” No, it’s not.
How about Government funded vacations? “In America, businesses voluntarily provide paid vacation leave. Without a national paid leave policy, nearly 25% of US workers go without time off, according to the Boston Globe, citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
Here’s an idea. Why don’t we create a work requirement for able-bodied (my grammar checker suggests I change this to non-disabled) occupants – not all of whom will be Americans – receiving money for nothing? Get them off the state or federally funded staycation bonus – which is often indefinite – then come and talk to me about federally backstopped vacations. The money we save shifting unproductive costs to productive ones can be returned to job creators who can then pay for vacation time so taxpayers don’t have toooooo!
Parental leave is on the list. Personally, I prefer this be left to job creators to work out as a benefit to their employees just like everything else, more or less. The government would waste billions annually in the unproductive management of programs while the free market will search for ways to provide better benefits at lower costs.
The last two are baby items and Daycare and again, no, and no. The government is ill-equipped to embrace any of these endeavors. But I can picture The Department of Baby Items budget. Seventy-billion a year, most of it on office space, equipment, and payroll to decide who should get a generic box of crap that the moms of newborns could just as easily get from a family member, local church or charity if they, in fact, are a person in need.
That’s their list, none of which is government’s business. All of which is, contrary to the headline, paid for by “Americans” whether the Federal Government takes it out your pocket first or not. Everything government does is paid for by taxpayers. The sooner we all realize that the sooner we can stop out-sourcing a majority of the spending decisions to overzealous “middle-managers” with policing powers and bad budget-writing skills.
