The State Is Incompetent

We now live in two Americas, just not the same two Americas that John Edwards was talking about. We the people live in one America, the Real America, where we live our lives, run our businesses, we do our own thing, and then government does its own things (that would be Government America)

In Real America, individuals and businesses build and sell real value. In Government America, value is destroyed. In Real America, we get on with the business of life. In Government America, this business of life is leeched away.

Compare a project completed by private business compared with a project completed by the state. The private business is incented to complete the project on time and under budget, where the state’s project has no constraint. This is why you see private buildings built in no time, while state sponsored building construction never seems to end.

Increasingly, the gap between the effectiveness of private business and the state is growing ever larger. As the state increases in size and scope and cost, it becomes less and less effective. On the flip side, business becomes ever leaner and more effective. You can do things in private industry now that were unheard of with lean staffs and budgets.

Where do you go when you want something done? You don’t go to the state, you go to private business.

If we truly want to be effective, the way forward must include, along with spending cuts, wholesale privatization of entire industries now very poorly run by the state. Give the “peoples business” back to the people and watch it get done, faster, better and cheaper.

I guess, in the end, it all comes down to competency: the state can afford to be incompetent, whereas we can’t. Unfortunately, we can no longer afford for the state to be incompetent.