Back in 2014, I shared a meme with a motto that was perfect for Washington, DC.
Today, let’s do something similar. But instead of a motto specifically for America’s unsavory capital, how about one sentence that summarizes the mentality of all governments.
I used a fill-in-the-blank format because there are so many possible answers.
After all, people in government value taxes more than growth, jobs, competitiveness, and all sorts of other factors.
And one of those other factors is public health, as we can see in this report by Rachel Pannett and Julia Mio Inuma in the Washington Post.
Japanese officials, worried about shifting demographics and a sharp decline in sin tax revenue, have come up with an unusual fix for their fiscal woes: encouraging young people to drink more. …Liquor tax revenue in the fiscal 2020 year was about $8.4 billion, a plunge of more than $813 million from the previous year, according to government data. That was the largest decline in three decades — and a cause for alarm for a government facing broad fiscal challenges. …The unorthodox push by bureaucrats to “revitalize the liquor industry” has faced a backlash…on Twitter. …“As long as they can collect taxes, I guess people’s health doesn’t matter.”
When I first saw this story, I thought it was a good fit for one of my columns highlighting “Great Moments in Foreign Government.”
But the final sentence of the excerpt caught my eye and motivated me to take a different approach.
Though the story gets added to my collection of “Strange Moments in Japanese Governance”:
- Licensing regulations for coffee enemas.
- Gimmicky tax and labor policies.
- Amazingly incompetent subsidies.
Yet another reminder that you’ve asked a very strange question if more government is the answer.
[…] sentences matches perfectly with the sentence I shared earlier this […]
John Michael Wagener, please see my response to Ned. And I’ll add this: the federal government restrictions on auto emissions are largely the reason the air is much cleaner in cities in the U.S.
BTW: would you prefer to buy meat not subject to government inspection? Would you prefer to drive over bridges not subject to government regulation? And let me close with the government’s role in the 60s granting black Americans the rights that had been denied them for generations.
Ned, I seem to remember the Nazis, the Japanese, and the Soviets being defeated. I also know that it is the US Navy that patrols the world’s sea lanes for the benefit of all. Oh… I should mention that I am vacationing in the Tetons which makes me think of two more things the government does well: national parks and the interstates I drove about 1200 miles to get to the Tetons.
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Yeah Dan, you should listen to Mr Kershner. It’s not intellectually honest to allow the 1% of wise, effective, and benevolent government to get a bad name from the other 99%. 🙂
Reblogged this on Utopia, you are standing in it!.
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You know, you’re becoming a one-track record, Dan. Have you ever thought of having the intellectually honesty to recognize where big government has been important? Such honesty would actually make your case stronger. As J.S. Mill said, “He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.”
As far as competencies, collecting taxes is one of the few things government is good at; even though a flat tax would be more efficient.