Believe the “Government” can save you at your own peril!

I shake my head all the time at the number of people that think  “Government” at any level is their saviour.  The all benevolent, all knowing, and all powerful “Government” can right all wrongs, can make a cloudy day bright, and can make our lives an episode of the Brady Brunch. 

I have no idea why this prevalent belief is not only alive but growing among the U.S. population.

Can someone tell me one thing the U.S. government, or any government really does well other than take our hard earned money to spend on what they deem is “good for us?”  Show me one program that does exactly what it was designed to do and at the cost its budget called for! Here’s a prime example of this.

On February 17th, just four weeks from now, all over-the-air television signals in the United States are set to go from analog to digital.  That means that older television sets won’t receive anything but snow on them unless they get converter boxes.  Since the U.S. government is the one mandating this change, they’ve been running a program for about a year that allows the public to request $40 vouchers to pay for those converter boxes. Now here’s the rub.

People who have waited until the last minute to get those vouchers or just realized they need the converter boxes are being put on a waiting list because the U.S. government didn’t allot enough money to fund the program for everyone that needed it.  The problem is now so pressing it seems that President-elect Barack Obama is calling for a delay in the conversion to digital TV!  (Read more)

Here is a simple government program.  Public asks for a voucher, voucher is sent to the public requesting said voucher, voucher is used for digital conversion box, and all is right in the world.  However it is not working!  If something as simple as this can’t be done correctly by the “government” who in their right mind thinks the “government” is going to wave its magic wand while spending a trillion dollars to “save” the U.S. economy is going to work any better? 

I now know why the word “Hope” was used so much during the last Presidential campaign since we all had better “hope” that somehow our “government” will suddenly be blessed with wisdom from above.  I’m not holding my breath.

~ by detroitvoice on January 9, 2009.