Saturday, February 23, 2008

Edging towards Third

I don't think it is all that hard. I simply expect a government -- any one that thinks it is competent -- to setup and enforce a series of simple, reasonable rules for its people. The act of doing this correctly aught to make a fair and stable society. These rules govern the interaction and protect people from hazards. They allow us to come together as a society for mutual benefits. They are important.

So how annoyed should I be when a city can't even afford to cleanup the snow or patch the roads, but has enough money for the counselors to get perks?

How disappointed should I be when I see a province suffering from gas shortages? Water shortages? Electricity brown-outs? But instead they want to enforce policies on which types of dogs they like and which type that think are 'nasty'?

How frustrated should I be when I see a country that doesn't help its own stuck in foreign prisons? Instead it downloads it expenses on other so it can create 'tax breaks' for popularity? It spends its efforts policing hostile lands instead of fixing its own internal problems?

How irritated should one be, when all four -- four? -- layers of government are inept for every possible reason. When our infrastructure feels like it is circling the toilet bowl at an ever increasing speed. And when we are suffering the same instabilities as places with seriously questionable governmental practices?

In a crappy society, only the rich benefit. They do this by gumming up the works with rules or corruption. In a real sense corruption is just a constantly changing arbitrary set of unofficial rules usually involving financial compensation. Some bloated territorial 'ministry' with a million insane rules isn't that far off from the type of third-world booty capitalism that we are constantly promoting where everything is sealed with graft. Is there really that much of a difference if it's money or favors?

Not that humans being selfish and greedy should come as any surprise, our politicians and bureaucrats built their careers on exploiting their relationships. That is why they have control now. These people worked their way into power. But I am sick of them thinking we don't know, or that their half-baked answers are anything but. It is a huge lot of callous people who think they are fooling us, while they are busy protecting their own little and insignificant turfs. Petty people make petty problems.

You kinda wish these people would grow up and do the job they are paid to do. Is it really that hard to decide on civilized policies and make some rules to insure that the agenda gets pushed through? Is it so difficult to clean up and remove the old useless rules? To simplify the existing ones? I guess if your so busy worrying about your turf, or who will be offended or whom you owe or own, the interaction becomes more important than the underlying policy. Still you would hope that some of these people decide as a legacy to actually try to fix things for a change instead of just joining the fray.

So we have a wealthy, educated society that is fundamentally unhealthy because it is basically a 'slob'. We sit in our mess, never bothering to even try to clean it up, out of the shallow fear that that might just make us unpopular. Never really realizing that the people are just aching to hire or vote in people who can actually get the job done. We looking for people who can clean up the mess. People who can wash out all of the dirt and grim from the room and find ways to ensure it just doesn't fall back to its messy state again. People who aren't just interested in their playing their own power games.

Oddly, unlike most third world countries our shortages and financial crisis are entirely self-inflicted. We have become the masters of shooting ourselves in the foot. At the end of an economically high-time, when we should be best able to service our society, there is a huge unplowed snow bank on my street blocking traffic to sadly prove it.

2 comments:

  1. People should read this.

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  2. Yes, but rants are never really popular with the masses :-)

    (I just write them to vent it from my system, they build up sometimes)

    Paul.

    ReplyDelete