How our lovable social institution fares in these difficult times

Please, Mother, I'd rather do it myself!

Sitting here in Michigan away from my Texas homeland, I read the local Oakland (County) Press newspaper.  The two top headlines for Wednesday, February 9, 2005, are:

1. State of the State—Governor Jennifer Granholm has just delivered her annual message describing all kinds of state plans to create jobs, educate kids, improve health care, and cure the common cold.  "We cannot afford to be divided or to be timid… we must compete or be left in the dust by other states and countries."
2. Roads could get millions—Oakland Press reporter, Hank Schaller, conveys how Dumbya's new budget proposes to increase federal highway and transit investment, and Michigan may receive $110 million more a year to fix roads and bridges, and improve mass transit.

One might read the same class of headings in newspapers in Texas or in any state of the union; the meaning and relevance of the information would not change.  Indeed, both headlines reflect the true state of the state, i.e. the condition of l'etat (the state)!

              Regular readers understand when we use "the state" in these columns we normally do not mean a political subdivision, rather we mean government in general.  More specifically, government qua coercive agent, as distinct from legitimate constitutional self-government.  In other words the state is what, as libertarians, we "disdain."

So what is the state of l'etat?

It's hard to analyze that question without putting it into an "us-vs.-them" context.

We, meaning the American people supposedly enjoying Constitutionally protected rights of life, liberty, and property, could be doing better.  And the reason we are not doing better is because they, the people who compose the massive infrastructure of the state, are.

In Reach for the Weedwhacker, I used the analogy of a parasitic weed for l'etat.  And I discussed the increasing hardship of removing such a weed when it has grown so dense as to infiltrate the entire garden.  The danger lies in cutting living, healthy plants.

In the spirit of that analogy, the weeds in the garden seem to be doing well compared to the living, healthy plants.  With the Patriot Act and the emergence of a take-no-prisoners (rather, take-lotsa-prisoners-and-torture-them) policy, tyranny is knocking at the door.  (Keep in mind parasites eventually die when their hosts die.)

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As I read the two headlines and scan the accompanying stories, it occurs to me 1) to ask Michigan's bodacious girl governor if she understands the true nature of government and 2) to ask where Washington gets the $110 million it's giving to Michigan for road improvements.  Two famous quotes come to mind:

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force.  Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

— George Washington

Government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.

— Henry David Thoreau

The headlines we cited at the beginning are related in that they both suggest the state has some wealth-generating quality—at least some type of crucial insight into creating what people want.  But how can that be true?

Did you ever know of a successful government businessman?  Or a brilliant government inventor?  Of course not (at least not on government time).  That's because government is force.  Guns and badges; pompous gray-hairs in fluffy robes, freedom-crushing tribunals, and smelly jail cells.  It has no hand in making what people need.  When the state tries to help in areas such as education, transportation, or health care, we all know it makes a mess.

Everything the government touches turns to crap.

— Ringo Starr

So say you're a citizen of Michigan and you read that the federales are sending $110 million your way for better roads, what are you gonna think?

"Gee, that's a lot of money.  I sure appreciate that George has the time, in the midst of bombing all those foreign countries into radioactive glass, to send me some of his hard-earned transportation dollars.  A great and generous man!  Hey, Sylvia, let's vote for him again, especially consider the money he collected for Jethro's Youth for Christ chapter."

How many Michigan goobers go through that thought process?

The Michigan goobers I know think along different lines:

"Wait just a minute, now.  Must be a trick… like when those hot, nubile secretaries invited me to watch them roll around on the floor naked.  If the feds actually want Michigan to have good roads, why do they take money from Michigan and send back less?

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time.

— Abraham Lincoln

It's time to step up and tell the state to stop fooling.  "When you take my money, don't pretend you're doing me any favors."  Either that or, "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore!"