While I try to avoid politics and whatnot as much as I can, last night’s 11 o’clock news pushed me over the edge. The big issue it seems lately is the state of the Michigan economy with manufacturing jobs being lost and house foreclosures rampant. Reading the papers and watching the news, you’d think the State is in a turmoil.
In the past week the largest employer in the state was shut down for a day due to a labor strike. They get their stuff straightened out and now we have supposedly an imminent shutdown of the state government, which I only assume is also one of the larger employers in the state. Not to mention that it would be the government shutting down. There was mention of how the lottery and liquor commissions would stop, and sales of those would cease. There was a ridiculous bit about how people are stocking up on liquor and lottery tickets (one guy has been buying extra all week just in case….wtf?!?) in case sales do stop this weekend. Oh yeah, and there was another toys-made-in-China-were-covered-in-lead-paint story. Stop licking the damn toys!
Let me climb up on my soabox now regarding the whole budget thing. They’re reporting a “projected $1.75 billion deficit”. Can someone explain how this happens? Personally, if I am spending more money than I am making, my quickfix is to spend less. I saw an article yesterday that mentioned possibilities of a raise to the income tax. It seems whenever this stuff comes up, and it always does, our choices are to raise taxes, or cut education, health care, programs for the poor and elderly, other essential programs, etc. It’d be nice if I could tell my boss “we’re spending more money than we make. Give me more money”. In my mind this is what a tax increase would be. And if they’re cutting spending and programs, that seems straightforward, too. If it’s essential, leave it. If it’s being wasteful, cut it. Among a group of people, you’d think you could come to a consensus.
So my question is this: are our taxes that much lower than the rest of the country? Are our government programs that much better than the rest of the country? If we’re not so out of whack with everybody else, then what are we doing wrong to be in this mess?
I think it’s the programmer in me that is frustrated. As I see it, everything can be broken down into simpler terms. Once you break everything down, and make sure each piece works correctly, the larger project works then, too. Which leads me to wonder about the concept of an “open source” government. Technically, I would think a government should be considered open source anyway, as it’s supposed to be run by the people, for the people, blah blah blah. The point is that everything should be available to be reviewed by any citizen. Shouldn’t all this budget stuff be open and transparent? You’re telling me that all the smartest people in the state can’t figure this shit out? Publish the damn spreadsheets, and let people have a crack at it. Hell, do it American Idol style, and let people vote on the friggin’ things. The “budget” has to be publicly available somewhere, right?
The State of Michigan is a mess. Maybe we should go back to Indiana….we’d be a half timezone behind or ahead of everyone else, and the major road in the state would be owned by a Spanish-Australian conglomerate….but it’s close to Chicago, right?
September 27th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
So despite your denial…. You are conservative… Atleast on fiscal issues.
Spending obviously needs to be cut. Part of the problem is that we keep dumping money into intercity schools, and that doesn’t gurantee a fix…. Money doesn’t fix things, yet these schools continue to perform poorly and they keep getting more money… and when they don’t people bitch about education being cut. Thats the problem with governement agencies is that they are not the most cost effective means… they are the only organizations that can continually loose money, and yet they continue to reamains in “business” and get funding. Also the fact that Granholm refused to put a 4 year limit on wellfare a few years back doesn’t help either.
The solutioin, cut spending, and let the private sector fill in were government can’t.
September 27th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Mostly, I think I’m just asking ‘why’. If cuts need to be made, then they should be made. If taxes need to be raised, then they should be raised. I think my point is that there must be some sort of comparison between Michigan and other states with similar economies. If we’re grossly underpaying for something that everyone else in the country is paying for at a higher level, then I don’t see why that couldn’t be exercised for a higher revenue. Likewise, if we’re grossly overspending for programs than other states in comparable situations, then that seems like it would be looked into to pull back some.
I don’t necessarily think spending money is bad, but wasteful use of funds definitely is a big cause of the problem. I DO NOT think cutting funding of inner city schools is going to HELP things, though, but that’s a whole other issue. Schools have always complained about being short on funds, no matter where they are. Why? Are they misspending what they get, or are they really not getting enough? Don’t we have people auditing and watching this stuff??
I’m on the fence about massive privatization. The free market only works when there is an interest in profit to be made. Some government programs are inevitably needed for the good of the citizens, but a private company would never touch them because they can’t run at a profit. Privatizing schools would unload things from the government, but how do you address the possible problems of haves vs have-nots? Education is one of those things that needs to be available to EVERYBODY. How do you guarantee ANY CHILD is able to participate in at least some sort of baseline education (read: free) in a completely private environment?
I would say that all in all I would support a smaller government that is as minimally intrusive as possible. Personally, my solution for this whole thing is to start from the top down and make the whole thing a part-time volunteer government!