Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Government
Somebody (actually my tax preparer) asked me what I thought about the new government and I mentioned I was for a certain amount of socialism in the government. When he asked what parts I was for, I had to stop and think about it awhile. And I've been thinking about it. Here's some of what I think should be looked into. Mind you, I'm not saying I know how to fix the problems, but here's some suggestions.
The major areas I'd like to see the government involved in are, health care, retirement, mass transit and education.
Health care - It has gotten to be too expensive. I think law suits play a big part in the cost. Too many tests and treatments done in defense of a possible law suit instead of for true health reasons. The cost of medicine; I got a tiny bottle of eye-drops the other day that cost $207 dollars a bottle, which lasted about three weeks. I also think health care is unbalanced. Why should one person with insurance get millions of dollars of treatment while someone else suffers because they can't afford a $500 pill regimen. I'd hate to make the decision but why should some insured 86 year old get hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical care to extend their life a month or two, while some out-of-work thirty-something mom goes without a treatment that could extend her life for years.
Retirement - I'm not saying retirement should be free of cost, but there needs to be some government oversight and guarantees of payment. Recently, the 401(k) plan looks to be a disaster. What was supposed to be a lifeline in retirement is turning out to be nothing more than a source of funds for the Madoffs and Stantons* of the world to use for their own enjoyment. For all those poor souls who had to count on a 401(k) for their retirement, instead, they'll now be looking forward to being a greeter at Walmart. The government should offer some kind of bottom line guarantee in a retirement fund where the principal money wouldn't be lost and you'd get at least some kind of interest in it. I wasn't too crazy about 401(k)s when they were making double-digit interest, and I'm less crazy now that they're making double-digit decreases.
Mass transit - I don't think in modern times that mass transit has ever been a money-making proposition. It has to be government supported. The state of mass transit in the USofA is embarrassing. I live near Saginaw, the northernmost good-sized city (about 50,000) in Michigan. The nearest train station is 45 miles away in Flint, which leaves most of the state even farther away. There are no bike paths for the most part. To get from where I live in the suburbs to Saginaw by bike, I'd be forced to travel on 45 - 55 mph roads with no shoulders and with drivers having no expectations of bikes. The local buses come no where close to where I live and even within the Saginaw business area, aren't all that convenient. (Honestly, even I don't expect bus service out by me, but it isn't completely out of the question.)
The government has to start laying the foundation for mass transit. It has to fund the trains and the rails for the trains to ride on. Gas taxes should go up to help pay for this stuff. Quit building new roads and get people out of their cars. There should be convenient bus service from outlying areas to feed to the trains. The schedules for all these should be inter-related. A bus should arrive at the train station before the trains leave, not after. In outlying areas, perhaps the buses could be combined with other functions. Package deliveries, road inspections, police surveillance, courier duties; all these could help make use of the buses. Eventually people would learn to depend more on them and ridership would go up.
Education - I just checked and the tuition at the small state-run university where I graduated in 1999 has doubled since then. The figures I found for 2000-01 are $109.65/hr and for 2008-09 are $201.80 . That's just nuts. What doubled in price (other than gas) since 2000? We need to make it easier for people (not just kids) to afford to go to secondary schools. It doesn't have to be a college or university. Some folks just aren't cut out for the college world. Vocational schools would be a better choice for them. And let's face it, for most people, a solid grounding in carpenter or electrician skills will pay off a lot better than a degree in English Literature.
There needs to be a wide range of affordable educational choices available for everyone. High school needs to do a better job in getting kids ready for the next level. Maybe a five-year high school's time has come. Life is more complex these days and many no longer have the basic skills for day-to-day life. In all honesty, I don't have any idea how to improve high schools, but the high school I graduated from 30+ years ago didn't do that bad of a job getting kids ready. Maybe we shouldn't be trying to improve things so much and just do what we've done in the past. I know the teenagers of today aren't the teenagers of my day, but something really needs to be done.
Those are some ideas I have about increased government involvement. The place I don't want it in is running businesses, either financially or otherwise. The government has no place in telling someone how to manage their company. The government does have a place in setting some minimum regulations about what the company has to do. Safety and health do need oversight. There does need to be some government oversight over hiring and firing procedures. Certain basic freedoms need to be protected. Where to draw the line is the hard part. But if a company is going to fail because of mismanagement, it should be left to fail or forced to change its management. There's no reason to artificially save a failing company only to see it fail in the near future.
*assuming this is read sometime in the future by someone for some reason, Madoff and Stanton are the names of two of bigger swindlers to steal people's money at the time this was written.
Labels: government
