The Charlie Brown Public is finally catching on to Government Lucy's pull-back-the-football trick. In a new Gallup poll, a record-high 81 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the way the country is being governed. The news there is that there are still 19 percent who haven't figured out the Matrix we're in yet. Among the more interesting results:
Americans believe, on average, that the federal government wastes 51 cents of every tax dollar, similar to a year ago, but up significantly from 46 cents a decade ago and from an average 43 cents three decades ago.
49% of Americans believe the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. In 2003, less than a third (30%) believed this.
I know some will be horrified that those numbers are so high, and there's a certain amount of justification for the dismay. A constitutional republic depends absolutely on the consent of the government, and the greater the cynicism, the less likely the consent. But, honestly, I'm surprised they're as low as they are. I'd be delighted if the government wasted only 51 cents of every tax dollar. And those 51 percent who don't yet grasp that govenment "poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens" -- how many times do they have
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Three decades ago there was no Fox News. Just because a lot of people believe something doesn't mean it's true. After all, most Americans don't believe in evolution.
Littlejohn, Fox News reaches what, 5 million people a day out of 200 million voters? I guess in using you liberals' schedule of "odds and evens" (odd days Fox is meaningless even days Fox is all powerful) today is an "even" day, huh?
What surprises me is that so many people think big government is wasteful, that don't realize that's a characteristic of bigness, rather than of government.
Public libraries are usually managed at a local level, and they're usually very responsive to patron requests, usually good stewards of the dollars they have to spend, usually very protective of patrons' privacy.
Big companies, such as cable TV companies, cellular companies, big factories, big stores, etc., are as likely to be wasteful and run roughshod over people as big government is.
I agree, Harl, with your views on big business. But in most cases we can easily disassociate ourselves from them if we don't like the way they operate. Not so with the government.
No man is an island, Phil. When International Harvester ran into trouble, Mark Sauder had to hold a going-out-of-business sale.
Not to mention that most people own big corporations, either through a group retirement plan at work, or individual ownership of mutual funds.
In 1950, living in a small town, you might have a small telephone company, might buy flour from a local mill, beef from a local farmer, which you'd have processed at a local locker plant, buy your vegetables along the roadside and can them using town gas to run your stove, but you'd have a hard time finding a small mill, a locker plant, a town gas generator, and a mom-and-pop telephone company these days. We're stuck doing business with large corporations these days, whether we like it or not.