8 Comments Add your own

• 1. John Foust  |  February 19th, 2010 at 9:53 am

  

  No, the first rule is “Pay yourself first”. The other rules are the Rules of Acquisition.

  So how to you explain all those venture capitalists who fund startups? I’d like to know the context of the radio quote. You think all those business owners who, like Rick in Casablanca, keep their employees working in the lean times?

• 2. Debunked  |  February 19th, 2010 at 9:59 am

  

  Your first mistake is thinking of government as a business.

  Government isn’t there to make a profit. It’s there to provide for the safety and welfare of its citizens.

  Governmental budgets should be balanced, even based on Keynesian theories. That means increasing spending and reduced taxes in a recession and decreasing spending and increased taxes during an economic boom. The problem is government doesn’t follow the second half of the plan.

• 3. neomom  |  February 19th, 2010 at 6:50 pm

  

  Debunked,

  Thanks for reminding us all that government doesn’t work and that even the thought of giving those idiots more size, money and power is would be a really stupid thing.

• 4. neomom  |  February 19th, 2010 at 6:51 pm

  

  um – scratch the “is” from the above…

  Should read “and power would be”

  must sync up fingers with brain when typing….

• 5. BobG  |  February 19th, 2010 at 9:22 pm

  

  “Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing — and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.”
  -Will Rogers

• 6. Debunked  |  February 20th, 2010 at 12:11 pm

  

  Thanks for reminding us all that government doesn’t work and that even the thought of giving those idiots more size, money and power is would be a really stupid thing.

  Yes, that’s what I was doing. I feel this warrants a copy/paste of this little tidbit. Don’t you just love those people who make such absolutist statements?

  This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the national aeronautics and space administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US department of agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the food and drug administration.

  At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the national institute of standards and technology and the US naval observatory, I get into my national highway traffic safety administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the environmental protection agency, using legal tender issed by the federal reserve bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US postal service and drop the kids off at the public school.

  After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the department of labor and the occupational safety and health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it’s valuables thanks to the local police department.

  I then log on to the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post about how the government can’t do anything right.

• 7. Elliot  |  February 22nd, 2010 at 1:23 pm

  

  I know I’m being a little bit of an ass, but:

  Some people get their electricity from generators or solar, or some other non-grid/non-government solution, plenty of people get their water for their showers from wells (I use to), or use FedEx instead of the post office and send their kids to private schools or homeschool them.

  This little story actually does more to show how the government can’t resist sticking it’s fingers into everything than it does to prove how we can’t live without it.

• 8. Debunked  |  February 22nd, 2010 at 1:26 pm

  

  Sure, you can easily nitpick at pieces of it.

  The point I was making is if you think that even one of the programs mentioned in the article functions properly, then you can’t make the blanket statement that “government doesn’t work” as neomom so boldly stated.

  And I don’t know anybody that will argue not a single one of those programs work as it deals with everything from environmental agencies, to the FDA, to NASA, and the military.

  I think the vast majority of people will consider at least one of those as a good organization to have.

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