How the Shutdown Shows Us Exactly Where to Start Cutting Government

Problem: Do you have any idea how many areas of your life involve the government? Now all these areas, that you didn’t even know the government was involved in, are affected by the shutdown!

Mainstream solution: Re-open government, and continue to leave all these sectors vulnerable to the incompetence and maliciousness of government.

Actual solution: GET THE GOVERNMENT THE HELL OUT OF THE ECONOMY!

Over a month of the “shutdown” and now they have agreed to reopen temporarily. Oh boy, that means we get all the terrible government we pay for back in our lives.

Until February 15th at least.

Then government workers can go back to the food bank lines or–gasp–find private sector jobs!

[The most shocking part of all this to me is that the people running the government on a daily basis don’t even have their shit together enough to go one month without pay. But why should I be surprised when they are taking the lead of a government almost $22 TRILLION in debt.]

I’m an empathetic person so I don’t like to see anyone struggle. Which is why for years I’ve written about the need to take matters into your own hands. Be prepared for disaster instead of relying on the government or corporations to save you.

So–big surprise–here’s a disaster. The government can’t fulfill its basic functions because of a partisan political fight.

And if this is how it goes over a $5 billion dispute, imagine when it really hits the fan. Could be the debt, the unfunded liabilities, or the viability of the overprinted dollar–but something WILL give causing a real shutdown much worse than the current political stunt.

Great reasons to get the government out of all important roles.

When was the last time you went to the grocery store and were told the shelves were empty because the CEO was feuding with the stockholders?

Never. And if it happened, the company would cease to exist.

That means the CEO is out of a job, and the stockholders just lost their investment. And it all happened because they were not serving their customers.

Now government agencies cannot serve their “customers” because of a feuding executive and legislature. What happens to them?

Clearly, these organizations should cease to exist. Clear out the dead wood, and allow new growth, just as the market does naturally.

The fact that there is a temporary deal is irrelevant. The workers and the taxpayers will continue to be vulnerable to a loss of work, and services.

The government holds the economy hostage.

They create a problem by putting themselves in the middle of everyday normal economic transactions. Then when they don’t get their way, they stop doing their job, but won’t get out of the way and let someone else do it.

As I mentioned the other day, the TSA is a prime example. They provide BAD airport security, which gets even worse when they are understaffed and unpaid.

But if airports used their own security, like San Francisco International, then they would actually keep the airplanes safe AND avoid defunding during political squabbles.

But airports need TSA approval to go private… So if the TSA wants its budget restored, they can cause pain to US travelers with slow security lines, while preventing the companies and customers from solving the problem naturally.

Which they would solve because profits depend on it.

But the government doesn’t profit, it takes.

And if they want to keep taking, they have to make sure you feel the hurt when they aren’t there serving your needs.

Private sector incentive: solve your problems.

Government incentive: make you feel the pain to solve their problems.

Vox provided some examples of all the ways the government shutdown is hurting the economy.

Problem A: The IRS is not processing W-2 tax forms so companies cannot get employees the information they need to file taxes and get a tax return.

Solution A: Stop stealing people’s money. I won’t dive into all the reasons the income tax is unjust. But we can all agree that having the government hold extra money that you earned, only to return it later without interest is bull.

So whether it is abolishing the income tax and IRS, or less intense tax reform, this problem doesn’t need to exist. It was created by the government, and they will solve it for a price. That’s how government functions.

Problem B: “[T]he FBI has stalled interviews of child victims and indictments for homicides and child sexual assault prosecutions.”

Solution B: Are you freaking kidding me?

Again, it would take pages and pages to explain ALL the reasons the FBI is terrible–why you can’t trust them, how they literally plan all the terrorism they prevent, and why private sector investigations would be better…

But suffice it to say that if it is this easy to get the government to stops investigating murder and child rape, then they shouldn’t be the ones doing it!

We’d be better off with private crime insurance.

Problem C: “[T]he EPA conducts more than 10,000 [wastewater treatment plant] inspections per year and was already behind before the shutdown started.”

Solution C: So the EPA was already doing a terrible job, now they are doing no job.

But let’s fund them and get them up and running doing a crappy job again?

Or let’s take this opportunity to end the EPA altogether so that they don’t give people a false sense of security, basically lying about keeping them safe from pollutants.

Then a private company would seize that opportunity to do the job instead. Worried about corruption? A private company has much more to lose for doing a bad job compared to the EPA…

But when the EPA botched a cleanup and spilled a million gallons of toxic chemicals into the Colorado River, what happened? Nothing.

Sometimes I start writing these articles and I’m like, oh man, do I have a strong enough point to make, is there enough data, enough examples…

And other times like today I have to stop because I could go on for a thousand more pages about how stupid it is that we let the government dominate nearly everything in our lives!

Today is one of those days I start writing an article and by the end of it, I want to grab a megaphone and scream some sanity into the world.

WHY THE HELL ARE WE STILL DOING THIS?!

Why do we still let the government handle all these things?

There are only two possible scenarios:

The government is doing a job that is not important. Therefore NO ONE, including the government, should do it.
Or the government it doing a job that is really important. Therefore the government should DEFINITELY NOT be the one to do it.

You can read more from Joe Jarvis at The Daily Bell.