When to Throw the Penalty Flag?

A friend, that I like and respect, and I were discussing the role of government. She felt strongly that the role of government is to right the wrongs in society. Who else can do it, certainly not the citizens, they are powerless. My first impulse was to agree. After all, I can think of many instances in which the government was the only entity powerful enough to right a wrong: the Civil Rights Act, the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Sherman AntiTrust Act, to name a few.

The government had to step in and right the unacceptable wrongs occurring for blacks in the South. It would not have happened on its own, I believe this. Regarding immoral and unethical businesses destroying our environment, how can we as citizens keep an eye on every business dumping toxic waste into our water supply? Yes, this needs a governmental solution. (Although, today, one could argue how ineffective the EPA is in its task since some businesses still dump toxic waste irresponsibly and bribe officials to look the other way.) And who can possibly take on a monopoly other than the government.

However, now that I have had a little more time to ponder this statement, I want to disagree with my friend in many cases. People do have power, with their money. They can choose to spend their money with conscientious businesses. This requires an informed populace and an ethical, resolute free press, neither of which we have at the moment, though. The U.S. is like a perfect storm, with coalescing factors swirling together (an uneducated populace due to the failure of public education, stoopid politicians elected with no expertise or experience in any area -- some who can barely think or speak, entire industries guilty of immoral conduct, labor unions with business-killing demands, huge percentages receiving public assistance, high taxes, high unemployment, deficit spending, shocking debt, dependency on foreign business and governments…). What will be the result? A tsunami wave, an earth-shattering quake, a hurricane sucking the country down into a vortex?

In a perfect world, the people do hold the power to right wrongs with their pocketbooks. I suspect we see it all the time around us and do not recognize it for what it is. I think the American people repudiated anti-business labor unions many years ago…when they chose to buy Hondas and Toyotas instead of Fords and Chevrolets. And instead of letting the people’s economic vote stand, our government took our tax money and used it to rescue the auto industry, allowing the grip-hold of unions to continue, now sucking the life out of not only their host companies but the American taxpayer as well.

This is what that previous sentence means: You chose to buy a Toyota because it was a better product for less money (compared to the jacked up Chevy price to cover ridiculous American factory labor costs). And then your government decided you needed to buy a Chevy, too, with your taxes, so that we can “save” the manufacturing union jobs. Your money supports two car companies, although you only selected one. And, you only got one actual car to drive home.

Was British Petroleum punished for its oil spill last summer? For a long time, stock analysts recommended buying the seriously devalued stock, as the large multinational company will surely rebound. There’s fortunes to be made. Now, some are starting to say sell, the costs associated with restitution of the spill will only continue to escalate, that there will be no happy ending. So has the punishing power of the people’s money done its work here? Way too early to say.

Recalls of contaminated food? Punishing bad companies with our buying decisions should definitely work in this case. But, I read that we are developing “recall fatigue,” not even paying attention to recalls since they have become so common. Costco now telephones customers to let them know they purchased a recalled item. Does this relay into any economic punishment? “When spinach was recalled in 2006, consumers took over a year to return to previous spending patterns. But after recent calls of peanut butter, beef and eggs, customers came back in a matter of weeks.” Okay, so, yes and no. We have to eat, for God’s sake. And the same food producers sell their food to different packagers and marketers…gee, it’s like a hidden monopoly in some instances. Actually, shouldn’t we reward companies who do recall items instead of those who let it go?

So, what’s the stance we should adopt for governmental involvement? If a financial punishment/reward by the people will work, let it. If a church or a charity can step in and help, let them. We need to be very careful about the new areas of influence we allow our government. So the question becomes for each American, what are the wrongs so seriously wrong, and no other recourse exists to fix it, that the government must step in and right? Could boycotts have worked to solve the civil rights issues? I don’t think so, we were seeing bombings of churches and buses, murder, beatings, outright criminal behavior skewing the natural order of economics. Civil Rights is just the perfect example of when a government must get involved and RIGHT a serious WRONG.

Many people feel that any abortion under any circumstances is a wrong the government must right. Others feel not creating a system for free universal health care for all, as an advanced civilization, is a wrong that must be set right. Some feel that the human rights violations in other countries is an unacceptable wrong to be righted, their sense of decency is offended, and they cannot simply avert their eyes. I understand and sympathize with all these positions…and yet, disagree completely that these are areas requiring, even demanding, government action.

We simply do not have the money to do all the wonderful things we’d like to. And whatever we endorse as a government (such as the current model of medicine) may show itself as criminally negligent in the future. Kind of like backing Saddam Hussein with our money, satellites, helicopters when Iraq attacked Iran in 1980. Yeah, we really did that. And don’t you wish you had that money back…