Liberalism: An Odd Solution to the Problem - Island of Sanity

Island of Sanity

Liberals & Conservatives

Liberalism: An Odd Solution to the Problem

One of liberals' top complaints about the U.S. government today -- perhaps their number one complaint -- is that the government is a servant to rich lobbyists and big corporations. Our government is a "wholly owned subsidiary of the big corporations" as one writer put it. Big corporations use the power of the government to take advantage of the poor and disadvantaged. Taxes take from the poor to give to the rich.

And then the solution they propose to this problem is ...give the government more money and more power!

Umm ... If you think the government is totally corrupt now, why would you want to give it more power? If you think taxes are just another way for the rich to take from the poor, why do you want to make them even higher?

Liberals are always telling us that government regulators are little more than stooges for the very companies they are supposed to regulate. But then they say that the solution is to make yet another regulatory agency. If the big companies manged to infiltrate and take over all the existing regulators, what makes you think they won't just do the same thing again?

Liberals are always telling us that laws intended to protect the consumer get hijacked along the way by lobbyists who twist them into something that just protects the big companies from competition. But then they say that the solution is to make yet more laws. What makes you think the lobbyists won't hijack those, too?

Surely if you really believed that the government is in the hip pocket of the rich and powerful, the solution would be to find ways to take power and money away from the government, not pile more on. If you really want to help the oppressed, don't keep giving more ammunition to his oppressor.

© 2005 by Jay Johansen


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