One of the reasons I’m a libertarian is that virtually all of my personal interactions with government are unpleasant.
* Governments pull me over and give me tickets for trying to efficiently drive from one location to another.
* Governments coerce me into filling out complicated tax forms in order to give politicians money that will be wasted on vote-buying scams.
* Governments make flying a miserable and time-consuming experience.
* Governments make me waste time in lines to get my car registered and inspected.
* Governments require me to deal with surly and slothful bureaucrats if I have to go to the Postal Service.
* Governments operate crummy monopoly schools that necessitate me spending lots of money to get my kids educated.
Today, I discovered a personal reason to despise Amtrak.
I have to take the train to New York City for an “Intelligence Squared” debate tat will take place this evening about Keynesian “stimulus.”
But because Rick Perry announced his flat tax plan today, I have been swamped with press calls and radio interviews. In an effort to maximize my output, I timed my last talk radio interview to conclude just before I would have to go to Union Station to catch the train.
However, traffic was bad on the way to the train station (I can probably blame that on government as well, but I’ll resist the temptation), so I didn’t arrive until 5 minutes before my train. A bit nerve-wracking, but presumably not a crisis.
I rushed to the gate, saw the door was closed, so I snuck through another door (along with two other tardy passengers) and got to the track before the train left.
Seems like a happy ending to the story, right?
But we’re dealing with the government. So rather than a helpful employee greeting us and saying “glad you guys made it on time,” we were chased down by Amtrak bureaucrats and a cop, all of whom yelled at us for violating the rules.
We pointed at the train, which was about 30 feet from us and pleaded for some common sense and human decency, but the bureaucrats seemed happy about forcing us to wait an additional hour for the next train.
If (and I realize this is unlikely) we ever get a Congress that believes in the Constitution and decides to eliminate corrupt and inefficient subsidies, I will be thinking of these bureaucrats when explaining to members of Congress why Amtrak should lose its spot at the public trough.
I don’t know Dan but I haven’t had a traffic ticket in over 30 years and appreciate the fact that government employes police officers who routinely pull over people who don’t obey traffic laws, thus making it a safer traffic environment for me and my children. I pay someone to fill out those complicated tax forms for me, usually saving money and a lot of aggravation, try it sometime. Flying can still be a good time if done correctly, get there early and deal with it. You don’t ever have to deal with the post office, there are other options. And I’m very happy with the public magnet school that my daughter attends, if I wasn’t I would work a little harder and take the private school route. In other words, quit whining.
Thomas Abt,
You just wrote that, “Flying can still be a good time if done correctly, get there early and deal with it.”
So, there is nothing wrong with Dan’s critique? In fact it would still be a good time, all that has to be done is to “deal with it”? Uh, you should start to recognize something is wrong with your defense of a system if the best you can offer is, “its a good time if you just deal with it”.
The solution to a piss-poor postal office is to avoid it?
The solution to filling out those forms, is to have to spend money on someone else to do it?
You sound like the victim in a battered spouse relationship, whom relentlessly justifies the abuse and declares that in the future you need to make sure dinner is ready on time so that you don’t give your husband a reason to strike you in the face.
Nothing you wrote even attempting to address the content of Dan’s reasonable criticisms. You simply just mocked his failure to accept the treatment of government, regardless of how inefficient or abusive it is. It would appear the only admirable traits a good citizen can have, in your eyes, would be to learn how to deal with it and stop whining. That’s pretty freaking scary!
Thomas, you are a politicians dream.
“Common Sense” are becoming two very archaic words. Why do they constantly remove common sense from daily situations or even more importantly legal issues like the elementary kid that took a Lego “gun” to school. I mean, the tiny kind for the little lego people. He got suspended for bringing a gun to school. Really?
It’s ridiculous they didn’t let you on the train. Although I must admit. I love hanging out at Union Station.
An efficient firm would allow one to board a train at the last minute and pay via an electronic device. And an efficient government would not continue to subsidize a money losing service. As far as the Postal Service goes, having worked in the postal area for a few years, surly employees are the least of the problems. The government sponsored monopoly is anti-consumer and intellectually backward. Many managers rose through the ranks and know little about marketing in a competitive world. (The First Class monopoly is no longer much protection.)
Mr. Abt thinks it is fine to endure an unnecessarily complicated tax code; but what about the person who cannot afford a skilled accountant? And why should the public consume scarce societal resources merely because the government is too stupid, lazy and/or corrupt to simplify the tax code? That is an elitist attitude.
He also apparently has a lot of time on his hands, so is happy to dismiss the waste of time involved in boarding a flight.
And he is lucky enough to be in an area that (at least he thinks) has a forward thinking school system — but many do not enjoy that advantage. Given his lack of perspective on these other issues, the magnet school may in fact be inferior. “Magnet” has a nice sounding name, but what really is its output? (Pontiac “Le Mans” had a nice sounding name, too, and we know what a sorry product that was.) Without much competition, how would one know? What one can say is that despite many billions pumped into the public school system, senior year test scores have been stagnant for decades, and American students are on average mediocre achievers when compared to other industrialized nations..
Such idolatry of the state — let the government do with me whatever it wishes — is a prescription for disaster.
I sympathize. The same Amtrak bureacrats called the cops when they saw me and my son taking pictures of Amtrak trains at Union Station.
Are these the same cops that Congress spends stimulus money to keep?
Didn’t know I was going to create such a firestorm of semi-intellectual bullshit.! Dan starts off by stating a premise, his premise is that “virtually” all of his interactions with government are unpleasant. I offered a few solutions to his unpleasant dealings. Maybe Dan shopuld have built in a little cushion between his last interview and the time the train was scheduled to depart and he wouldn’t have had to “sneak through another door” and to his surprise someone had a problem with that? I don’t think it is fine to endure a ridiculous tax code, however even if there was a simple tax code that every American could understand our buddy Dan would still be whining because “all of the money gets wasted on “vote buying scams”. Because of the world we live in the rules of flying have changed, can the government do better? Absolutely, but to describe flying as a miserable experience is a bit over the top. And stronginva, I do not have any more time on my hands than the typical american, I have jus learned to use it wisely which works well for me. Give me an article with well thought out solutions to these problems, not a cursory “I am pissed at government rant” that over generalizes and makes not one good point. And Fellner, you kill me, I don’t find Dan’s criticisms reasonable, I find them to be simplistic and a bit “whiny” I am all for a better, smaller and more efficient government but give me solutions, not a 5th grade bitch session.
So you are mad that a blog post titled, “another reason I despise government” was about an example of why Dan despises government? Seems odd. Thankfully for you there is a tremendous body of work that address the possible solutions. They can be found at cato.org under the appropriate heading.
Not mad at the blog post title, not mad at anyone really, I just find his argument(s) similar to the ones I hear from my kids when things don’t go their way. And I am familiar with the Libertarian think tank called Cato, but thanks for the tip.
Isn’t that Koch fella one of the founders of Cato, interesting guy there.
Thomas, Dan has done a lot of work for Cato proposing solutions, especially in the area of tax reform. See . He has the right, on his own blog, to go on a small rant, not a careful argument, just an outlet to blow off some steam. You also have the right to point out that this was nothing more than that. I would point out that your comments, like claiming “semi-intellectual bullshit” and implying that the Kochs are evil, don’t exactly rise to a higher level than the post you criticized. I think the Kochs have done tremendous amounts of good, both as highly productive entrepreneurs and through charity, including their help to institutions like Cato.
Oops…the link didn’t post
http://www.cato.org/people/daniel-mitchell
Thomas, if you think a child’s whining is same as common man’s complaints of government, then I think you have yourself reacted too quick bypassing thoughtful reasoning. All the complaints he has cited, he has elaborated mindlessness and waste behind it perpetrated by government in his previous blog posts.
Have you ever reached just on time for a flight operated by private airlines and greeted like “glad you guys made it on time,” then you know the passivity of government employees.
This ofcourse can also give us an insight into passivity and stagnation inherent in government institutions.
Sound like you’re not very good at planning.
Traffic was slow largely due to commerce and industry.
And your inability to function efficiently in modern society is to blame for missing a train…that was running on time.
I’m just sayin’…
I take the MARC train home to Baltimore from DC every day and have seen several people get stuck in this ridiculous snafu of security theater whereby the gate to the train closes 2 minutes before the train is scheduled to leave. My husband and I spent a good 30 minutes once trying to determine what their reasoning for doing this could possibly be – what argument can be made that closing the gate 2 minutes early creates greater security? We came up with nothing.
Fellow Citizen – he wasn’t late for the train, rather he was not allowed to board a train he was on time for based on an utterly arbitrary rule that was just instituted in the last 6 months or so, for no substantive reason. And, if one does not travel by train regularly, there would be no way of knowing this rule exists since it defies all logic.
[…] be damned.” I’m tempted to stamp my feet and say the same thing, but I already did plenty of whining in a recent post, so I guess I’ll just have to suck it up and admit I somehow should have been more […]
Simply put, it’s the Th.Abt attitude about government that has infected too many in this country…I think they’d all be happier in France or Sweden. And that’s fine for them. But Americans believe that the free will granted by God demands that we don’t turn around and subject ourselves to others who hold the reins of power.
[…] Another Reason I Despise Government « International Liberty Ever wonder why fox news has the highest ratings? […]
And I will wager my $200 to your $2 that the persons who made your life difficult were employed only because they are black.
Dan,
What you’re quite accurately pointing out is the “us against them” attitude of government bureaucrats. The government is supposed to work “for” us, not “at” us.
To expand on your bullet points for the benefit of useful idiots like Thomas Abt:
– Government officials have no background in auto safety, yet set random “limits” (at one time actually with the lame excuse of ‘saving gasoline’?) and proclaim it to suddenly be a dangerous crime to exceed their dictates. In addition, since many offices set “quotas,” many citizens are pulled over and ticketed under false-pretense, as it is understood that when it’s your word against the government official’s appearing before the government’s judge you will almost always lose.
– The majority of government programs – and all programs designed to “help” people – are unconstitutional. The Founding Fathers never intended for government to seize private property in order to fund “social programs,” and there is nowhere in the Constitution where they are granted the right to do so. That was always the role of churches and other private charities…but, despite the fact that private charities are often effective and government organizations are never affective…private organizations don’t buy votes for politicians.
– The government claims that airport harassment is keeping us safe from Islamic terrorists, yet refuse to profile Islamists, as they don’t want to hurt their feelings…and instead they frisk old white women and children. And, each time the security is tested, guns, etc. get right through this useless “security.”
– Every time the concept of “car inspections” is tested by bringing cars with no mechanical problems to various inspection stations, it is discovered that a great many stations lie and charge customers huge amounts of money for work they didn’t need done before granting the inspection sticker.
– Since it’s almost impossible for government employees to be fired, and the union system does not reward exemplary workers, many postal workers simply put in their time until retirement as surly and slothful robots, as there’s no incentive to be helpful or friendly.
– Government officials have used our tax dollars to abolish efficient, community-run schools, where the PTA determined curriculum and teaching staff, replacing them with federal government “education centers,” where 80-percent of Wisconsin graduates can barely read, but know that homosexuality is supposedly a good thing.
The nearest government train is more than 100 miles from my home.
The post office in my small town is the only business on main street that is closed from noon to 1 PM every business day.
I pay my state government $10 each day in property tax for the privilege of living in their people’s republic.
I may have to “deal with it,” but I won’t ever like it.
Well done Mr. Mitchell. Much has been said about bad government, but much more must be said before Americans finally understand what an evil thing big government really is.
“Fellow Citizen – he wasn’t late for the train, rather he was not allowed to board a train he was on time for based on an utterly arbitrary rule that was just instituted in the last 6 months or so, for no substantive reason.”
But he was. He would also miss a flight if he arrived at the gate 5 mins before the plane departs.
(And imagine the rant from him about the ‘evil TSA’ that would prompt.)
I get that this is red meat for the Cato crowd – but that still doesn’t mean it makes any sense.
I’m hoping Dan can reflect on this and in the future plan better – and take personal responsibility when he doesn’t.
Or he could literally just blame ‘the government’ for everything.
Including dicks like Stu (above).
I have more respect for the common thug who would rob somone at gunpoint than I do for Mr. Koch who manipulates the system and robs the common man blind.
Certainly are more than a few whack jobs on here. Entertaining as hell though, especially the racist guy with the “bet the only reason they have a job is because they are black” comment. Slow down bobby lee, grab another pants blue ribbon and go iron your sheets for the next meeting.
Last time I rode on the Amtrak I got yelled at too, although luckily not chased. I’d arrived with my eticket and was heading over to the ticket printout machine when some nasally, loud-mouth started shouting from behind the ticket booth at me, saying I wasn’t allowed to use it. Why? Because it was broken? No, he told me, because if I used that machine it would put him out of his wonderful job. To which I replied, “Maybe you ought to get a better job,” as I continued to print out my ticket from the machine.
[…] realize I’m whining a bit (just like I did with my personal stories about Amtrak, tax returns, traffic tickets, and air travel), but what possible purpose did it serve for the […]
It appears the mental aberrations of profitless Hitler’s minions afloat on the government’s stolen funding with no real danger of end in sight or history will do their utmost to prove to all others that their power is to be respected at all times and you, the undeserving, are a burdensome cost as customer to their plunged in the red forever public business.
[…] Government officials from Amtrak treat people like pests and criminals rather than valued customers. […]