By Jonah Goldberg
Friday, November 08, 2013
The government thinks you're stupid, or at least
ignorant.
This isn't just an indictment of the current government
or an indictment of government itself. It's simply a statement of fact. At its
core, the government exists to do certain things that people aren't equipped to
do on their own. The list of those things has gotten longer and longer over the
years. In 1776, the federal government's portfolio could have easily fit in a file
folder: maintain an army and navy, a few federal courts, the post office, the
patent office and maybe a dozen or two other pretty obvious things.
Now, the file folder of things the federal government
does is much bigger. To paraphrase Dr. Egon Spengler from
"Ghostbusters," let's imagine that the federal government in 1776 was
the size of this Twinkie (take my word for it, I'm holding a normal-sized
Twinkie). Today that Twinkie would be 35 feet long, weighing approximately 600
pounds. Or, if that illustration doesn't work for you, consider this: The
number of civilians (i.e., not counting the military) who work for the
executive branch alone is today nearly equal to the entire population of the
United States in 1776. The Federal Register, the federal government's
fun-filled journal of new rules, regulations and the like, was about 2,600
pages in 1936 (a year after it was created). Today it's over 80,000 pages.
And that's just at the federal level. Each state
government is a pretty giant-sized Twinkie, too. In Massachusetts, all kids in
daycare are required by law to brush their teeth after lunch. In Texas --
Texas! -- if you don't have an interior design license, you can't call yourself
an interior designer, lest some unsuspecting consumer trust your opinion on
throw pillow placement without the backing of the state. Almost everywhere,
Americans need a license to open a business -- sometimes even a lemonade stand
-- but in Milwaukee, you even need a license to go out of business.
The justifications for all of these laws and all of these
workers -- the good, the bad and the ugly -- have one thing in common: the
assumption that the rest of us couldn't get by without them, whether we like it
or not.
This week the feds took the first steps to ban trans
fats. Why? Because trans fats are bad for you and you can't be trusted to avoid
them on your own. I bring this up not because it is such an outrageous
illustration of my point, but to demonstrate how typical it is. This is what
the government does, day in, day out.
That's what makes the reaction to Obamacare so
interesting. Several times now, the president has endeavored to explain that
it's not that big a deal millions of Americans are losing their health
insurance plans against their will. The people who had plans they liked didn't
understand that the plans they liked were no good -- they were the actuarial
equivalent of trans fats, don't you know? The fact that the people who held
them liked them, thought they were good and wanted to keep them doesn't count for
much, because the government knows best.
The president can't say it as plainly as he would like,
because to do so would be to admit not only that he lied to the American
people, but that he thinks the complainers are ignorant about their own needs
and interests.
The president's more intellectually honest defenders have
said exactly that. "Vast swathes of policy are based on the correct
presumption that people don't know what's best for them. Nothing new,"
tweeted Josh Barro, politics editor for Business Insider.
Barro's fairly liberal, but I'd be dishonest if I said
that he was wrong from a conservative perspective. The difference, however, is
that conservatives tend to see government as a necessary evil, and therefore
see policymaking with some humility. Liberals tend to see government as a
necessary good, and see ordering people to do things "for their own
good" as a source of pride, even hubris.
From a conservative perspective, telling people how to
run their lives when not absolutely necessary is an abuse of power. For
liberals, telling people how to run their lives is one of the really fun perks
of working for the government.
You can see the frustration on the president's face. It's
almost like the ingrates who refuse to understand that his were necessary lies
for their own good are spoiling all his fun.
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