- Someone is sneaking around in West Cape May, New Jersey and placing scarves around trees and sign posts. Seems harmless enough. Nowhere in the article it is mentioned that the scarves are ugly, degrading, biased, a fire hazard, etc. However, police resources are being used to track down this culprit in order to force him or her to obtain, i.e. pay for, the appropriate permits for decorating public places. Talk about over regulation.
- According to writer Robby Soave, the Federal government owns 65% of the land in the contiguous forty eight states. That in itself is very alarming, given the government's inability to manage anything well, the fact that almost two thirds of our country is under the government's control should make anyone stop and worry. However, even worse is the fact that a former director of the Office of Management and Budget has conceded that Federal agencies have identified over 14,000 buildings that they no longer need and there are at least another 55,000 buildings that are either underutilized or not used at all. Think about that number, 55,000. If you put the two numbers together you end up with about 1340 buildings on average per state that serve no government purpose. In a state like New Jersey with its twenty one counties, that comes out to about 64 buildings per county. The continuing bad news is that these are all estimates since the Federal government has no central, accurate accounting system to identify and manage all of these dead assets. Reason's analysis estimated that if these properties were sold, over $1 TRILLION could be raised. If dedicated to reducing our national debt, this sell off could instantly reduce our overwhelming national debt by about 8%, without raising taxes or cutting other services.
- In the area of unintended consequences, something the Federal government is so good at, consider a recently passed Department of Labor regulation that raises the penalties and fines levied against employers who break the Department's stricter child labor regulations. As a result of the new regulations, inspectors have stepped up enforcement in the agriculture industry. In order to not afoul of the inspectors and the fines they can levy, many farms have decided to ban children from their property altogether even if they were not working. This has put a burden on many of the poorer migrant worker families who do not have access to affordable day care centers for small children. Previously, they would bring the children along with them to the farms, not to work, but to just be safe with their parents. Thus, the people that most need the work on the farms are penalized without just cause because of the Washington bureaucracy.
- In a discussion between Reason representatives and the city council of Cleveland on ways to revive the city of Cleveland, a Councilman was defending their sign ordinance guidelines relative to the long time it takes to get anything approved by the city government bureaucracy. In the course of the discussion. the councilman mentioned that a business sign could have no more than three colors. Perplexed by that condition, the Reason representatives asked why only two or three colors. The answer? Because that was what the regulation said. Can you say circular reasoning?
- Although not in Reason, consider the following insane situation that was reported in the August 27, 2010 issue of The Week magazine. A new Brazilian law prohibits anyone from degrading or ridiculing a candidate, a party, or political coalition during the three months prior to an election. This has caused the country's comedians and satirists to wage street protests against the law. It is unclear from the article who would decide what is degrading and what is ridicule, a task that is probably impossible to define and enforce. What would Jay and Conan talk about during those three months if that law was passed in this country? Would YouTube videos depicting politicians saying stupid things themselves (recall the Georgia Congressman who publicly worried that the island of Guam was going to tip over) constitute a violation of the law? In other words, would it be degrading if politicians make themselves look stupid? An insane law that is impossible to enforce because it is all subjective.
Just a few examples of government and politicians out of control. While government resources around the world are looking for exterior decorators or worried about the color combinations in business signs or suppressing funny jokes about politicians or passing regulations that help no one but economically injure the poor, the bigger issues of our time continue to be ignored. That is the definition of insanity and, unfortunately, also the definition of our political class and government.
Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Also visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
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http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
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