It's a Good Start

This week's Webrant on the Memphis Flyer website is by Ruth Ogles. She calls it "an immodest proposal."

[Politicians] talk about their experience in office and ask us to trust them for another term. They spend mounds of money to buy ad space and airtime to detail the successful programs they have overseen. But one thing they do not talk about is the limits of government and more importantly, the limits of government spending. Neither do their opponents because voters don’t elect people who tell them what they’re not going to get. Nobody ever comes to power by promising too little.

Recent op-ed space was provided by The Commercial Appeal to our county mayor, sheriff and district attorney to publish earnest requests to keep their budgets intact. Other public officials have joined the refrain with their equally heartfelt pleas. All imply that chaos will reign in the streets if these "essential" services are so much as nicked in the imminent budgetectomy.

She goes on to list some steps to help correct the budgetary excesses we're all familiar with. Some are good, like expecting the application of business acumen, but some seem like more government and more tinkering with the structures of government to produce a desired outcome.

John Adams warned us long ago:

We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.

Benjamin Franklin also warned:

When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.

To expect laws and governments to change the nature of people is to espouse socialism and authoritarianism Remove temptations, by removing the ability of legislators to hand out our money to their friends.. Find a way to put virtue and morality back into people and these problems solve themselves to a great extent.