Tea Party/Occupy Political Cartoon That Speaks Volumes, page 2

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reply posted on 26-10-2011 @ 12:59 PM by getreadyalready

reply to post by TheWalkingFox

but there is no problem of "big government." There's a problem of bad government, and there's a problem of too little government, but there's no problem with "big" government - and there never has been.

There can be no such thing as "good" government. Government is intrinsically inefficient, wasteful, slow to react, and dominated by politics. Ask any Public Administration major in college. Ask any government worker. Ask any politician. Hell, ask any citizen!! I am all 4 of the above, and I assure you, the more government does, the more government messes up. Therefore government is ALWAYS too big!

I get your point, if the government were run more efficiently and effectively it wouldn't be such a burden. The fact is, Politicians make policies, and bureaucracies carry them out, and somewhere in between everything falls apart. Either the politicians make the wrong policies, or the bureaucracies are bad at administering them, or both.

The truth is, only very limited and localized government can ever be effective, and even then we have to be vigilant to spot and root out corruption. On a State or National level, it is almost hopeless to expect anything other than mediocrity at best, and flat out lies, corruption, and waste at worst.

reply posted on 26-10-2011 @ 01:00 PM by getreadyalready

reply to post by TupacShakur

The best thing I see from that picture is.......
Although the TPM and OWS are separated at the bottom, they are both whacking away at different legs of the same beast! Perhaps together they will bring the whole thing tumbling down.

reply posted on 26-10-2011 @ 01:10 PM by Aeons

reply to post by getreadyalready

Governance isn't optional on a federated level.

Expecting to have consistent action on global issues while refusing to engage in them leaves that field open to those actors who are willing to act in a cooperative way with a goal, or whom are willing to subsume themselves to a broader goal.

Big fish eats small fish. I don't intend on being one of the small fish.

reply posted on 26-10-2011 @ 01:15 PM by getreadyalready

reply to post by Aeons

I agree, we must have a Federal Government, but it should be as small and well-defined as possible with limited responsibility to National issues such as National Defense and Citizenship and a very basic core set of values for the Country to build around.

It seems we have gotten 180 degrees out of sync with our own Constitution. Our form of government works best locally, and becomes less and less efficient the farther from that locale that you get.

I was specifically responding to Fox, because she thinks we need MORE government?

I'm not advocating the government go away completely, but I think it should shrink back to its original intentions and everything else should be delegated downwards as far as possible.

reply posted on 26-10-2011 @ 01:31 PM by Aeons

The problem is that some issues of regulation must be federated. When my local governance decides that polluting the river that you drink is okay, and we won't stop because it isn't in our interests or laws then your options have to by necessity include violence.

Some issues cannot be left without broader guidance and regulation.

Though I think that it could work to redefine regulatory laws to stipulate that standards are minimal and broad, and dodgy action which clearly violates those regulations shall be pursued as the offenses of sense that they are.

Currently we are being killed by minutiae. One industry claims that in doing their work that it just never occurred to them to act in a manner which isn't scummy. It isn't in their interest, and when they can force governments to debate minutiae they can continue to act in these manners.

On the individual level, this is like the cell-phone laws. There didn't need to be a new law. The distracted driving one applies. It merely isn't ENFORCED. A new law doesn't address the underlying issue that the problem isn't that there wasn't an applicable law, it is that that law isn't enforced for a variety of reasons.

The broader brush should be broad, and it shouldn't equivocate.

reply posted on 26-10-2011 @ 01:37 PM by getreadyalready

reply to post by Aeons

True. I agree completely. Here in the Florida Big Bend area, we have Apalachicola Bay. It is directly impacted by the laws made 100's of miles North of us in Atlanta and surrounding areas. When they dam up water it impacts the salinity of our bay, when they pollute it affects the Oyster and Fishing Industries here, etc., etc.

There does need to be some oversight, but it should be limited and effective.

The minutaie is certainly the problem. The same can be said for drug laws, and mandatory sentencing, and drug laws, and just about every criminal offense on the books. We could use broader laws, allow the human element in Judges and Juries to act as intended, and stop letting technicalities and loop holes affect law-making and enforcement. That would be a huge step in the right direction!

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