On governmental ineptness and the importance of self-reliance

SolitaryRoad.com

Website owner:  James Miller

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Info ] [ Mail ]

This is March 20th and I am still waiting for an important piece of mail that was mailed out on the first of the month. I don’t know if it will ever come. It has happened before. A year ago it took a month for the postal service to deliver an important check. It all started with Covid. Before Covid the mail was reliable and you could count on it taking only three or four days for delivery. Before Covid I never had any doubts about the postal service. There has been a radical deterioration of service since Covid. (Later note. That item of mail never did arrive.)

It is not just the postal system. I have a very strong suspicion that our educational system, grades K thru 12, is doing a very mediocre job of educating our children throughout most of the country. Education is important! It is very important to the individual and it is important to the strength and well being of the country. Every child being given a good education should be a top priority in this country. Instead of being educated our children are being indoctrinated!

It is the same with all of the government welfare programs. They don’t work. They just encourage dependence. They do more bad than good. They turn people into dependent children. They destroy character.

I think Harry Browne was right: Government doesn’t work!

Once we realize that government doesn't work, we will stop

dreaming that this or that social problem can be solved by

passing a law - or by creating a new government program - or by

electing someone who will make Washington more efficient or

cost-conscious.

Harry Browne

We know that welfare is a failure. It has neither reduced

poverty nor made the poor self-sufficient. It has torn at the

social fabric of the country and been a significant factor in

increasing out-of-wedlock births with all their attendant

problems. It has weakened the work ethic and contributed to

rising crime rates. Most tragically of all, the pathologies

it engenders have been passed on from parent to child, from

generation to generation.

Michael D. Tanner

Government relief tends constantly to get out of hand. And

even when it is kept within bounds it tends to reduce the

incentives to work and to save, both of those who receive it and

of those who are forced to pay it. It may be said, in fact,

that practically every measure that governments take with the

ostensible object of "helping the poor" has the long-run effect

of doing the opposite.

Henry Hazlitt

One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the

evils in this world are to be cured by legislation.

Thomas B. Reed

This is a messed up world! Things are messed up here, there, everywhere! Nothing is as it seems or is presented! Don’t think politicians are going to fix problems for you! Their prime interest is mainly just keeping their job, getting elected. They will say and do anything for that. All they say and do is geared toward reelection! They propose great sounding programs that don’t work and squander billions on foolishness and you pay for it. They argue and fight between themselves and nothing of substance and importance gets done.

Looking to others to fix problems for you is a mistake. You have to look to yourself, your own mind and resources, to deal with the problems of life. Don’t trust the government to educate your children! Not if you care about them! You couldn’t do them a greater disservice than letting the government educate them! Will this problem be fixed? I doubt it. Teacher’s labor unions will block it. And people just don’t care. All most people really want is a babysitter for their children while they are at work. The quality of the education is secondary.

If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like,

serve yourself.

Franklin

There is no man so low down that the cure for his condition

does not lie strictly within himself.

T. L. Masson

Let every eye negotiate for itself, and trust no agent.

Shakespeare

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depend

upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best

plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the

man of manly character and of wisdom.

Plato

No external advantages can supply the place of self-reliance.

The force of one's being, if it has any force, must come from

within.

R. W. Clark

20 Mar 2023