In Spite Of Gubment

"Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it."

Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)

A man of many hats, Will Rogers was best known for his humorous, and sometimes caustic, quips and one liners.

He did a little bit of everything, giving him a broad experience and circumspect view of life.  From being a gaucho, to Vaudevillian, movie actor and radio broadcaster, and more, for decades he entertained with his personality and style.

Never one to back away from a controversial statement, even though he backed FDR and the New Deal (which was really Hoover's old deal wrapped up in more money), Rogers was not shy.

"Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for."

"Lord, the money we do spend on government and it's not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money twenty years ago."

Humor is best when it contains truth.  Do things really run in spite of gubment?

Certainly those statments all contain truth! 

Is a degree of gubment regulation necessary?  Sure, but what kind and how much before it becomes so expensive it ends up stultifying motivation and/or economic activity?

The Competitive Enterprise Institute has a report called "The Tip of The Costberg," in which they calculate that $1.086 trillion of the $3.6 trillion budget was spent on the cost of compliance of federal-agency written regulation in JUST THE FIRST HALF OF THIS FISCAL YEAR!  So, in their calculations, the cost to our economy in just regulatory compliance equals the federal budget.

WOULD YOU CONSIDER THAT A BIT HIGH?  WOULD YOU CONSIDER THAT A BIT STULTIFYING OF MOTIVATION AND/OR ECONOMIC ACTIVITY?

The hallmark, the defining criterion of bureaucracy, is that it has to grow to sustain itself.  It becomes further and further compartmentalized, with each office, and officer, growing in "importance" and overseeing control.

Are we not now, once again, at the point made by Mr. Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote, as one of the many complaints to a tyrannical king:  "He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance..." ?

No matter who the next president is, he will inherit a real mess.  Some would say an intentional mess.

And eliminating a huge portion of regulation demanding expensive compliance has to be eliminated or we will drown not only in debt, which "financial cliff" appears certain to come, but in compliance to silly, self-important and bloated offices and officers IN TRIPLICATE!