These days we're yelling and screaming about the government's budget deficit, and how this is the fault of our congress persons. But much of the problem is also with us. We have wanted (and need) all sorts of things but don't want to pay for them. When anybody suggests that we ought to raise taxes to pay for our wars or infrastructure, or the services we so rely on as a complex culture, we (especially the Corporations and the ultra-wealthy) scream bloody hell and kick out the one who suggested raising taxes in the first place.
It costs a lot to live in a complex world, and much of that cost comes from the things we need to keep that complexity within bounds. Examples: food inspectors, flight controllers, airplane inspectors, bank and wall street regulators to keep them from gambling away our money, all the complexity of Homeland Security, and the list goes on and on. Add that to the costs of all the complex infrastructure (roads, sewers, airports, water systems, etc.) that keeps our modern economy running smoothly and you’ve got a lot of bucks. But we hate paying for it. We’ve taken on a mindset that everything "government" is bad. It’s not. It just has to be run right.
Example: I don’t want to have to buy some fancy science kit with which I can test every toy I buy for my grandchildren for lead content. I want some common organization I can trust to do it for all of us.
I could go on and on, but enough for now.
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