printMyron Pauli on the malignant, metastatic cancer known as government.
Government Begat Government Which Begat Government
By Myron Robert Pauli
My friend at the Federal Trade Commission is assigned to fight “monopoly” in the field of laser eye surgery. The Food and Drug Administration approved ONLY “laser A” and “laser B” for doing eye surgery [of course, WHY did the FDA get to approve lasers and why should ONLY these two lasers be approved over other capable lasers???]. It seems that the Patent and Trademark Office then gave patents (e.g. virtual monopolies) to the companies holding these two lasers (something of which Jefferson and many libertarians disapprove). Then the FTC claimed that these two companies “colluded” in making a monopoly which was, in fact, created by the state power of the FDA and the PTO. In other words, the solution to government-created-problems is, of course, more government.
And then there is a recent article in The Atlantic for government reparations for black Americans – after all, one had government slave codes, government Fugitive Slave Laws, banishment of free blacks, franchise denial, Jim Crow Laws, racist FHA, racist Agriculture Department, racist zoning laws, racist licensing restrictions, racist closed shop laws. Social Security transfers money from black men [who die at age 65] to white/Asian women who live near 90 years. Reparations were given to wealthy widows of 9/11 stockbrokers [another obscenity]… and thus, government should now extract money from Vietnamese refugees in the form of taxes to compensate descendents of people victimized by government in 1850 … and government begat government.
Speaking of Vietnamese refugees, it was the government which sent millions of warfighters (many conscripted with the draft) to fight in senseless wars of nation building in Vietnam, Cambodia, Somalia, Haiti, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan …. where these veterans return with chronic injuries, addictions, and mental problems. The solution, of course, is not to allow them to seek private health care but to dump them into a VA system [chronicled in the movie “Born on the Fourth of July”] which, being government, is an unaccountable, uncompetitive, sovereign monopoly. The solution to problems in the VA or the DC schools or public housing or Amtrak or anything is, naturally, to increase the budget. In the beginning, there was government … and government begat more government … which begat more government. If X fails, try 2X and 3X and 4X. American Dream Downpayment Act begat Housing Bubble begat Wall Street Bailout begat more Income Inequality … solution – more government, of course!
And if Bush#1 is bad, the solution is Clinton#1. If he seems bad, try Bush#2 followed by Obama#1 followed by either Clinton#2 or Bush#3. Plus ca change plus c’est le meme chose (the more things change, the more they remain the same). Tired of the same old routine, folks, then try the New Freedom, the New Deal, the New Frontier, or the New Nixon. The new Messiah will solve the problems of the previous incompetent with “compassionate conservatism” or “hope and change” and “a more responsive government” and “more transparency” which amazingly always means: more laws, more arbitrary secretive government, more debt, more inflation, more drones, more spindoctors, and less liberty. As that noted ‘American-hating extremist’ Thomas Jefferson, observed: “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”
To Americans, most of whom have Orwellian memory holes, it has always been this way. Government has ALWAYS regulated X and Y and Z and provided for old people or college educations or health care or what not. I listen to the debate on voter ID – since you need a government ID to board a bus or have a drink, then you must have a photo ID to vote (can someone name which signers of the Declaration or the Constitution had photo ID’s ???). If photo ID’s are good enough for Mohammed Atta and the 9/11 hijackers, then they are good enough for everyone…. And so these arguments go … One loss of liberty leads to more. One actual terrorists leads to government reading all our mails and logging in all our phone calls. If government does A to us, then of course it should also do B and C and D …. – government begats government. And the people shout AMEN!
******
Barely a Blog (BAB) contributor Myron Pauli grew up in Sunnyside Queens, went off to college in Cleveland and then spent time in a mental institution in Cambridge MA (MIT) with Benjamin Netanyahu (did not know him), and others until he was released with the “hostages” and Jimmy Carter on January 20, 1981, having defended his dissertation in nuclear physics. Most of the time since, he has worked on infrared sensors, mainly at Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC. He was NOT named after Ron Paul but is distantly related to physicist Wolftgang Pauli; unfortunately, only the “good looks” were handed down and not the brains. He writes assorted song lyrics and essays reflecting his cynicism and classical liberalism. Click on the “BAB’s A List” category to access the Pauli archive.