File this under #GovernmentFail… a shining example of just how badly people can screw something up when they are spending other people’s money, for the purported benefit of someone else. (See Milton Friedman’s Four Ways to Spend Money.)
In an article today about this story, Paul Joseph Watson of Summit News alerts readers: “No, this is not the Onion.”
A marketing agency in Minneapolis came up with a tagline for South Dakota’s anti-meth campaign: “Meth. We’re On It.” The ad campaign features various people, including the state’s governor, saying, “I’m on meth”. They go on to explain that what they really mean is “I’m on the case. I’m working to solve the problem.”
Cost: $449,000. Really. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Hey, at least the state got a trademark on the phrase. Like, just in case someone else decides they want to use the tagline “Meth. We’re on it.”
As a rule, bureaucrats believe they have a right to taxpayer money simply because they (theoretically) exist to fulfill some beneficial purpose. But accountability in government is rare. In the rest of the world, results matter. Government is catastrophically bad at so many of the things that it sets out to do, precisely because it falls into Milton Friedman’s fourth quadrant (spending other people’s money, for the benefit of someone else).
The solution??? Get involved. Hold officials accountable. We get the government we deserve. Just like the people of South Dakota.
