It is budget time here in NH for the municipalities, school districts, and the counties. Here in Belknap County, there has been quite the brouhaha as the Commissioners tried to eliminate funding for "outside agencies". These are social services organizations that have inserted themselves into the welfare state as we devolve from a "can do" country to a "I need my Mommy" style of government.
While I will be (and quite sure Doug will be also) posting about the machinations going on, essentially the County Commissioners finally started to ask the question "What is the proper role of government?" for them at the County level. In other words, what should be the main focus and priority for County expenditures? And I felt they made the right decision in difficult economic times, trying to put the interests of the taxpayers first. Man, what a fire storm that lit off as the non-governmental agencies (and their cheerleaders) saw the possibility of allowed to suck at the teat of government!
If one listened to a "forum" held by these extra-governmental organizations to berate plead inform the Commissioners of how wrong they were, one noticed:
- that if the money was cut off, only horror, disaster, and doom would follow. After all, how would those that are at risk going to ever live without us?
- Of the 50 or so that rose to speak, only a handful (with fingers left over) asked the commissioners to watch out for the taxpayers who are paying the freight for these programs.
Do you ever think that the social organizations ever, other then faint lip service, ever really think that getting more money from the taxpayers puts those right on the edge right at risk as well – of losing their homes for the inability to pay the taxes demanded of them?
THIS is one of the consequences of an ever increasing government. Liberals believe that it is the compassionate thing to take care of people. As they do so, they put those who have to pay for that compassion (for, as we have seen with Al Gore and Barack Obama and Joe Biden, to hit on a few mega-liberals, that Liberals rarely put their own wallets where their mouths and legislation is) ever closer to that edge of no return themselves.
But hey, WE’RE HELPING PEOPLE HERE! So, what is the answer to the question of "what did we do before the welfare state"?
We used to help each other. Voluntarily individually and in groups. There used to be organizations called mutual aid societies that people used to join, pay dues, and then help each other out. Churches, too, used to do much to alleviate the problems in life (ask yourself – did government build all those hospitals with religious sounding names?).
What happened to them? Simple – government forced them out of business:
After the talk was over, a student asked what has become of the mutual aid societies. Beito answered that after the advent of the welfare state, they went into decline, an unfortunate demonstration of the way politics tends to muscle aside voluntary action and self-reliance.
Take a look at this one too. That used to be the way it was – no government bill, no government involvement – it concentrated on what it was supposed to. People decided what and how they were going to help themselves and paid for it – they had the freedom to pay for only what THEY felt they needed and they got to set the rules – no politicians deciding to restrict things with laws, no bureaucrats deciding "do you meet the qualifications, or not?".
And one sees it happening over and over again – government taking over what used to be a purely voluntary efforts, making that effort more expensive by "professionalizing" it, and making people more dependent on government.
But let me ask – has this process of replacing real community efforts with tax funded professionals proven to be better? Remember – once dependent on tax revenues, the latter will always be able to justify their existence?
I was going to add "when does government ever get smaller once first getting larger?" How may politicians have the political courage to say "no further?" and make it stick?
Certainly, my County Commissioners (Republicans all) went right up to the edge of victory – then fell back into the tank when after all was said and done, they caved and restored all the funding. Pity the hapless taxpayers, once again.
Question – who was supposed to receive the political cover for this PR and taxpayer disaster?
Oh, I know, I’m going to be a persona non grata for a while, but WHEN will the taxpayers get an even shake in the present system?
