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|  | | | Government didn't get us here, but government might get us out of here
There’s a debate shaping up on the national as well as the state level, as every apparently smart person on the planet weighs in with his or her views on what needs to be done to turn our economy around, or at least stop it from slipping deeper into the dark abyss.
And it has to do with government. Specifically, its size. And as the people who seem to disdain everything about government talk about the supposedly unprecedented “opportunities” available at this dire time to “reform” government in ways that, not too long ago, no one would have ever even dared consider, you can almost see a little sparkle in their eye, as if they’ve never been this close to making their dreams a reality, and they’re not about to blow it.
But, hey, not so fast, OK?
Why? Because, and let’s be clear on this: GOVERNMENT DIDN’T PUT US HERE. Sure, some government programs may have contributed some of the elements that became the perfect storm that put us here, but government alone most certainly did not put us here. Greedy people in the private sector put us here, and a lot of those greedy people were, about eight years ago, constrained in their ability to do some of the greedy things they did, but the Bush Administration released all those constraints as part of a frenzy to privatize everything and, well…HERE WE ARE.
Absolutely, there needs to be some innovative thinking here. There needs to be consolidation. There needs to be cuts. When the University of Minnesota Extension Service, led at the time by UMC Chancellor Chuck Casey, was transformed into a service provider based out of some “regional centers” scattered across the state, people lost their jobs and it was seen as a fairly drastic measure to get the budget in line. But the thinking here is that it’s worked out fairly well. So when you hear people talk about cities, counties and school districts needing to work more closely together than ever before by sharing services and opening new doors of collaboration, it’s definitely worth exploring in very serious fashion.
But don’t let these so-called reformers who believe in the leanest of lean government, if they believe in any government at all, tell you that government bureaucracy and mismanagement are solely responsible for our current plight. If we’ve learned one thing over the past eight years, it’s that a government stripped of its ability to keep an eye on things that need to be kept an eye on is practically powerless when private, greedy interests start messing things up.
Just you wait, the government is going to help lead us out of this mess. We can talk all we want about innovation and creativity, and how some of today’s greatest companies were started with nothing but an idea fleshed out inside a garage. But when everything is this bad, it’s big government, yes, BIG government, that has the power, the ability, and the resources to do the big things that are needed.
When Barack Obama officially takes office, we’re going to start hearing about some of those big solutions, and on the surface a lot of it is going to sound like nothing more than throwing a lot of money at the problem. To an extent, that will be an accurate perception, one made even more ominous by the obvious question: Where’s all the money coming from? But that’s where we’re at, and nothing less than a government-led effort is going to start our long, exhausting climb out of the abyss.
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