Posted on 09/21/2017 8:17:37 AM PDT by Kaslin
I grew up in suburbia, and have spent various parts of my life in small towns, a Southern city and in rural Indiana. Moving may be a hassle, but new experiences in new locations provide wonderful opportunities to learn and explore. That's certainly true as I adjust to life in New York City, a vastly different environment than anything I've tried before.
Living in the city, my wife and I have encountered government as never before. We rely on the subway to get around, enjoy strolls through Central Park, routinely see police officers and traffic cops and have heard about city regulations on just about everything we ask about. Many of the rules and regulations (but not all) make sense.
Because government is so visible in the city, many who live here have a hard time grasping why so many other Americans see government as, at best, a necessary evil. It's not really a philosophical view or an ideology so much as just the practical reality of day-to-day life.
But, when I've lived in rural settings, the day-to-day reality was entirely different. People in such settings rarely encounter government and instead see a society guided by community organizations, churches, helpful neighbors and informal arrangements. When there's a problem to be solved, people get together and solve it. Government rules and regulations from a distant capital are often mocked as unrealistic and intrusive.
For people in such settings, it's impossible to understand why some people think government should have the right to intrude on just about anything that involves day-to-day life.
In reality, both imagined experiences are incomplete. The heavy government presence in New York blinds many to just how much the vibrant informal society and business community do to make the city work. And, in rural areas, the reverse is true. While government plays a background role, all the other organizations and neighborhood activity typically obscure it.
A healthy society requires leadership from all organizations and individuals in the community. It cannot survive with an overly dominant government or without any government. It cannot survive without individuals, community organizations, and businesses working together and making their world just a little bit better. But, as should be obvious to all, the right mix of leadership depends upon the community. What works in New York City will not work in rural Indiana.
That bit of common sense wisdom is often missing from our national political dialogue. Too often we carry out national political debates as extensions of our local experience. People who live in cities often expect the government to regulate everything that moves and distrust those who advocate any other solutions. Those who live outside the cities typically see a government that already is doing too much and are equally distrustful of other views.
We can never resolve these differences at the national level. No matter how much some in DC want to believe it, one-size fits all solutions can't possibly work in a wonderfully diverse country like the United States. Instead, we should work to return decision making closer to home. Let every community create the leadership mix and government role that makes sense in their corner of the world. And, then, let people vote with their feet to decide what works best for them.
Letting people with the power to levy taxes have the ability to decide what are the scope of their power and responsibility by means at their disposal is ALWAYS a bad idea and trends towards too much government.
A government that is free to grow its own sphere of influence will result in a people who are no longer free. A people who are free NEEDS government to be bound by heavy chains and restraints that it cannot escape, even if, or especially if, it claims it just want freedom in order to help people out who are in dire need (that’s just a transient excuse, the power that results never goes away).
It happens through proverbial accumulated paper cuts, through regulatory capture that is never regulatory release, through tax cuts that are always temporary but tax increases that are basically forever.
Big government is how you reduce your posterity to mere subjects.
People love the federal government during storms and various weather related times. Right now Texas and Florida are loving the government. However, things like sending our tax money to countries other then America is ridiculous. Sending money to the EU and UN is crazy. Paying for abortions and other medical treatments is not necessary. Sending money to Universities should not happen at the federal level. So yes a lot of government should not happen, but during weather related situations, the federal government needs to step in.
Great points. Imaganing life without a big government is a much different thing in the middle of a big city as opposed to a rural area.
“Too often we carry out national political debates as extensions of our local experience. People who live in cities often expect the government to regulate everything that moves and distrust those who advocate any other solutions. Those who live outside the cities typically see a government that already is doing too much and are equally distrustful of other views. We can never resolve these differences at the national level.”
This.
Someone who lives near self-sufficiently doesn’t need, nay resents, micro-managing from faraway strangers. Ex.: how long you can park on the side of a road is a non-issue.
Someone who lives like a packed sardine, nearly bumping shoulders every few seconds, needs micro-managing of culture just to reduce conflict and not get bogged down in negotiating minutiae near constantly. Ex.: how long you can park on the side of a road is a big issue. (I think broadly libertarian interpretation of the Constitution still is best in such cases, but certainly understand why urban folk _expect_ and _tolerate_ pervasive legislation.)
Hence: we are the United _States_. What may work for the majority of CA may be anathema to the whole of WY; let them work out local issues locally.
Not its delegated power, not its job.
People’s circumstances, no matter how dire, are not amendments to the Constitution.
There’s an amendment process: either make it lawful or do without.
Last week we faced the prospect of a direct hit from Irma. However bad it could have been (Cat 1 even, near Atlanta), however destructive, wouldn’t occur to me to expect the government to “step in” beyond clearing roads. Everyone should be self-sufficient in such disasters, and insofar as some can’t there should be charities ready (which I did help with).
A big complaint with “feds should step in” is that, arguably, they’ve created the scenario to step into. In Houston, lots of people got cheap flood insurance - encouraging them to build in areas which (golly gee whiz) got flooded, thus the feds encouraging the very situation which the feds are expected to extract people from. Society _must_ come to grips with the reality that: some activities constitute clear risks that others are _not_ obligated to bail the risk-takers out of. Built in a flood zone? warned of imminent flooding (days in advance)? stayed? don’t compel me to pay the high costs of extracting you & rebuilding your home (I may choose to, but there’s a huge difference there). That flood insurance is required per zoning laws should be a huge warning sign to anyone building there; instead of “to build here, we’ll require you to buy dirt-cheap flood insurance others will pay thru the nose to cover” there should be “sign this paper acknowledging you know this area is prone to flooding, that you may lose everything (your life included) if you do build/move there, and that nobody else is obligated to bail your dumb a$$ out if it does flood”.
I know this sounds arrogant & heartless. It’s as arrogant & heartless as “don’t hit that fly on your forehead with a hammer, and if you do I’m not obligated to call 911 nor pay for your skull reconstruction surgery”.
To me living in NYC would be a soul crushing hell on earth nightmare.
In CA the most invasive busybodies i’ve dealt with are NIMBY neighbors and suburban city council/zoning processes, who perpetually interfere with others attempt to use their land as they see fit. it's the biggest driver of the housing crisis we have.
New York is Tribal ... too many Chiefs and Witch Doctors
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