Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: angry

POLITICS: States that give, states that get

Of the states that get more money than they give, 84% are Republican.
Of the states that give more money than they get, 78% are Democratic.
NOW who's redistributing wealth unfairly?
Details here.
Tags: economics, politics
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  • 102 comments
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haikujaguar

haikujaguar

October 31 2008, 17:07:54 UTC 12 years ago

I don't think of the government as an agent of community: certainly, the government has not been managing its duties the way I think it should be, much less encouraging the community I want. It's been a long time since my government represented me, anyway.

I think of it as a loaded gun. It has too much power already to be impartial or trusted.
ysabetwordsmith

Hmm...

ysabetwordsmith

October 31 2008, 20:39:02 UTC 12 years ago

Perhaps local government -- a town's mayor, for example -- can be an agent of community. The national government tends not to be. Like you, I feel that it's been a long time since the national government represented me; in a global forum, I'm usually either criticizing it or apologizing for it.

I agree with you about the loaded gun: a thing to be wary of, but useful if something is trying to kill you.

What would it take to make government, or organization, an agent of community?

I think a primary problem in both government and business is size. The bigger an organization gets, the farther it spreads, and the less it's compelled to care about any one person or place, or even group of people. A local business relies on the local economy and community. A national business can accomplish things a local one can't -- but chances are it doesn't care about the local economy or community anymore, because it has 500 stores and thousands of employees.

One thing that would help would be a change in structure. Right now, a corporation is like a hub with straight lines running to all the stores. It would work better if there were lateral connections, and local clusters -- if the stores could function locally as much as possible, and use the widespread connections to accomplish things that couldn't be done locally. With high-level government, we run into problems where they try to impose one solution nationally that does not work everywhere because of local conditions. "No Child Left Behind" is a textbook case of how to screw up by that book. It would be better if effective local solutions could be passed along both laterally and radially, so that people would have some options to try and the best ones would get replicated. We don't do much of that now.