How government should work.
This is something I typed up during the election... i never posted it, but i figure i might as well do it now.
How your government should work.
Now this again is just my humble little opinion from a wiseass 22-year-old kid. Here is the deal… I look at my government through many different views… I would like to explain one of them right now… I see government as a business. We are all the customers who buy services provided by the government. We buy defense, we buy education, and we pay for paved streets, clean air, water, parks, garbage, and justice… We pay for all this and more through a little something called the tax system.
Recently one of my senators, Russ Fiengold was defending his seat in the house. In his campaign he spoke about many things he is for, and what he was against… Well one of them has sparked me to write this post. He mentioned a bill he was/is? trying to pass that strengthens the "buy American act". (That basically means the U.S. government needs to buy American made products/services only.) Now I try to usually buy American products myself… I figure I am helping our local economy, and that makes up for the higher price. But having my government buy American stuff only is, well, kind of stupid… Now those who disagree just calm down and let me explain…
First off remember that view of government being a business… If the government was a smarter business it could get its ass out of debt… But sense the government is designed to break even we have out little problem of our debt… We have butt loads of it, and the way to get out of it is by the government breaking the rules for a little while by making a prophet. They can do this many ways, cut spending, and reduce overhead cost. You may want to add raising taxes, but i dissagree... the only time they need to be raised is when inflation weakens the dollar. If you are looking for a third option... it would be to reduce almost all services and let the private sector take over...
Now I know debt can be a problem, even though national debt doesn't really effect your everyday life, it still could harm our future... Sorry I am getting sidetracked… Lets get back to that "Buy American Act". I don't like it, it's stupid… As the government as a business, buying American products only increases overhead cost… Now that means it increases the cost required for them to provide the service, which results in a loss in prophet if they were going for one, and a definite increase in the price they charge. (As in your taxes go up, because they pass some of the higher cost they have on to you…)
I personally would like to see the government get more bang for my tax buck… example… lets say all federal courts need new gables. The government can either buy 300 American gables at 50 dollars a piece, or 300 non-American gables at 5 dollars a piece at the same quality…. Hmmmmmmm.... If I was running a business that was lossing money every day, i'd have to suck it up and buy some forgien gabble... perhaps if I eventually save my business, I could possibly afford to through some of the money i have back into the u.s market, in stead of the worlds market.
Now you can argue the government buying American products helps boost our economy, but I argue taxing everyone LESS helps us more than buying some specific American companies products… which most likely that company hires some out of country manufacturer to create the product and then charge a hire price to customers.
I encourage you, if you have the extra dollar to buy American products, but our government needs to be a bit more efficient, and that means giving them more options. They need to deal with companies that globally compete to offer our government the best value. After all, we try to practice a free market here in the U.S. Shouldn't our government get to participate too?
How your government should work.
Now this again is just my humble little opinion from a wiseass 22-year-old kid. Here is the deal… I look at my government through many different views… I would like to explain one of them right now… I see government as a business. We are all the customers who buy services provided by the government. We buy defense, we buy education, and we pay for paved streets, clean air, water, parks, garbage, and justice… We pay for all this and more through a little something called the tax system.
Recently one of my senators, Russ Fiengold was defending his seat in the house. In his campaign he spoke about many things he is for, and what he was against… Well one of them has sparked me to write this post. He mentioned a bill he was/is? trying to pass that strengthens the "buy American act". (That basically means the U.S. government needs to buy American made products/services only.) Now I try to usually buy American products myself… I figure I am helping our local economy, and that makes up for the higher price. But having my government buy American stuff only is, well, kind of stupid… Now those who disagree just calm down and let me explain…
First off remember that view of government being a business… If the government was a smarter business it could get its ass out of debt… But sense the government is designed to break even we have out little problem of our debt… We have butt loads of it, and the way to get out of it is by the government breaking the rules for a little while by making a prophet. They can do this many ways, cut spending, and reduce overhead cost. You may want to add raising taxes, but i dissagree... the only time they need to be raised is when inflation weakens the dollar. If you are looking for a third option... it would be to reduce almost all services and let the private sector take over...
Now I know debt can be a problem, even though national debt doesn't really effect your everyday life, it still could harm our future... Sorry I am getting sidetracked… Lets get back to that "Buy American Act". I don't like it, it's stupid… As the government as a business, buying American products only increases overhead cost… Now that means it increases the cost required for them to provide the service, which results in a loss in prophet if they were going for one, and a definite increase in the price they charge. (As in your taxes go up, because they pass some of the higher cost they have on to you…)
I personally would like to see the government get more bang for my tax buck… example… lets say all federal courts need new gables. The government can either buy 300 American gables at 50 dollars a piece, or 300 non-American gables at 5 dollars a piece at the same quality…. Hmmmmmmm.... If I was running a business that was lossing money every day, i'd have to suck it up and buy some forgien gabble... perhaps if I eventually save my business, I could possibly afford to through some of the money i have back into the u.s market, in stead of the worlds market.
Now you can argue the government buying American products helps boost our economy, but I argue taxing everyone LESS helps us more than buying some specific American companies products… which most likely that company hires some out of country manufacturer to create the product and then charge a hire price to customers.
I encourage you, if you have the extra dollar to buy American products, but our government needs to be a bit more efficient, and that means giving them more options. They need to deal with companies that globally compete to offer our government the best value. After all, we try to practice a free market here in the U.S. Shouldn't our government get to participate too?
posted by Legolas at 8:55 AM
2 Comments:
Okay, I see your point about paying such a ridiculous mark up on American made items versus some imported items. However, by buying the $5 gable you are hurting our economic situation in a more abstract way. It's the classic example of Joe Schmoe Company decides to move the factory that employed 50,000 Americans to Mexico, China [insert whatever country here] because he can pay people (and/or children) 30 cents an hour instead of $13.00 an hour. This in turn hurts our economy in other ways. Less jobs, higher unemployment, less people paying taxes and less people spending money to buy [American made] products.
Perhaps our focus should be to buy American made goods for a fair price. If the government planned ahead, bought things in bulk and paid a fair market price that was not over-inflated nor under-priced, then we would all win. Sure, we might spend a little more money up front, but sometimes the least expensive road is not necessarily the road to happiness.
Now, excuse me while I get in my foreign car, burn foreign gasoline to get home so I can eat Chinese food and watch my foreign T.V. set. ;)
I kinda see your point... But one thing I always like to throw out, is that with more and more countries becoming democracy's the world is opening up and becoming a larger market... The global market is growing by leaps and bounds with the new technology, and primarly countries opening up to western ideas...
I kind of think of it as the world will some day be a large group of united countries... like how the u.s. there will be areas in the world that will be like arkansas, low intellegence, areas like CA/NY that have lots of money and then places like the midwest were the world gets its crops...
People here in the us move their business around now. States compete to get each others businesses... the problem with our nation is having is trying to compete with other countries... It's almost impossible to compete. with all the government regulation, and high taxes, its no wonder businesses set up plants outside the U.S... I plan to really debunk the outsourcing myth in another post... stay tuned for that.
My basic point is that plants here in the u.s. that make gables (if any do) have a harder time doing business because of all the regulations they need... people will pay a fair price for quality workers... what really hurts them, is that some government opertation comes in and tells them they need to idiot proof everything. they need to cover every aspect of business so that they do not get sued, they spend millions on lawyers... to make it worse they have to pay higher taxes, property, business, sales, income, provide insurance...
All these factors are what drive up prices. Then they try to compete globally and can't... many try to get even more government involved and force forgien products to be taxed 5 times as much.
As I hope to prove with future posts. Most problems are created when our government trys to fix small ones. Free markets are good... they should be left alone.
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