The Answer
Deborah Venable
10/11/10
The
common lament from the leftists – pundits and politicians alike – is that the
“other side” has no answers to the many problems, especially with the economy,
that we are constantly pointing out.
The truth is that there have been many “answers” to these problems,
spoken, written about, and graphically illustrated. To turn the argument around on these very elites, who make such a
charge, they are obstructionists in the real sense of the word – so they
immediately discount and block such answers and then claim there are none!
Here
is the answer from my own unique point of view:
It
isn’t enough to say that conservatives are for “limited government” if no one
really defines what that means. Let’s
just jump to the very core of the issue, shall we?
Limited
government means that limits are placed on government. It doesn’t mean that we hire people and send
them to our state houses and Washington D.C. to come up with new and different
ways to place limits on us! We are strangled
with limits that have been placed on us, and it gets worse every time
congresses are in session!
Limited
government means that limits should be placed first on the very concept of
government employment. The fact that
government has grown to a full-time job is atrocious in a supposedly free
country. So, the answer is to place
strict limits on government employment.
No
one – and I do mean no one should ever consider government employment as an
honorable career path!
If
you are a life-long government employee – shame on you!
There
is nothing more honorable about depending on government coffers for a paycheck
than there is about depending on government coffers for welfare! Whoever told you any differently?
So,
here’s the answer; anyone who takes a government job of any kind does so with
the full knowledge that there are “term limits” to that government
employment. For representatives in
congress, most certainly, but even for the lowly government office worker! As for advancement, one can only advance as
far as he or she can managed in the limited time of government employment term
limits. Simple. Ten years should just about do it. After ten years in any government employment
it is time to either retire or move into the private sector employment
status. In other words – no one gets
rich feeding from the government trough.
But,
what about the military? - you might ask.
Or firemen, policemen, teachers, or any of the supporting staff for
these entities? FBI, CIA, or any of the
other many (too many) alphabet outfits on government payrolls?
Ten
years, folks! That’s it! No more!
That’s the answer!
The
truth is that many of the so-called “public sector” jobs could be handled much
more efficiently by the private sector.
We don’t need government to run these businesses the way the government
runs all business – into the ground. We
don’t need the waste generated by government contracts for jobs in the private
sector to be placed under the control and regulation of government self-interest. We already know what the problem is – too
much government spending! This is a
sure-fire way to stop that in its tracks!
People
need to work for themselves and their communities for most of their productive
lives. They do not need to land a cushy
government job right out of college and continue drawing a paycheck made out by
Uncle Sam or any state or local government until they retire. Public sector unions are the biggest joke of
all! If that isn’t fertile ground for
corruption, I don’t know what is!
Why
ten years, you might ask? Well, I would
have no problem with the bulk of society seeking government employment at
sometime during their productive lives.
They may choose to start out that way, as many do today in military
service or some civil service employment, and then take what they learn there
into the private sector after their maximum ten years of service. Or, others may choose to get some private
sector experience first and then take that into a government job. After which, they would have a better than
average resume enhancement for their final years in the private sector. Still others may prefer to take as much
private sector experience as they could into their chosen government work. These would be the crown jewels of real
experience to run the upper echelons of every necessary government entity. But the ten-year limit would curb many
corrupting thoughts of government power.
Would
this system be fool proof? Of course
not – but it would stand a better than average chance of returning America to
her roots.
Whenever
election time came around, under this system, we may find that a much more
qualified batch of concerned citizens would step up to that political plate as
well – perhaps having already used some of their term limits in public sector
employment – and ready to truly represent and not rule.
I
can already hear the naysayers complaining about the improbability of such a
system ever being adopted, much less actually working. I simply say, why not? It is the answer in so many ways to the
problem with our economy and our government right now.
If
you can do better, by all means, spin me YOUR American Dream!
An
afterthought especially for you “career” military types: the government may be charged with training
an elite force of killing machines, as your detractors now think of you, but
you must not lose touch with what you tell yourself is the reason why you do
what you do. If your job is only
temporary, and you know it from the start, you are not nearly as likely
to. Your family, if you have one, is
never better off for your chosen profession, and neither is your own peace of
mind.