Government is Good

achilles28 · May 10, 2015

I don't think you understand what a Libertarian is. George Washington was a Libertarian. Thomas Jefferson was a Libertarian etc. They believed in Government, too.

WeToddDid2 · May 10, 2015

futurecurrents said:
5:30 p.m. As you drive home, you notice the tree-lined streets and the nice houses in your neighborhood – generally a pretty good place to live. Thanks again to government. Without zoning rules, you might have an auto body shop or a fast-food outlet move in next door. Or worse yet, a fertilizer plant or a toxic waste site. But there are no noxious smells in the air, no excessive and dangerous traffic on your street – thanks to your government. Pleasant and livable neighborhoods are only possible with extensive government planning and zoning regulation.
5:35 p.m. As you approach your house, you see your child coming down the sidewalk. The government-provided sidewalk. The sidewalk that allows your child to walk to the neighbor’s house down the street to play with a friend without the risk of being hit by a car.
5:45 p.m. You go for a jog in your local public park.
6:30 p.m. You take your family out for dinner at a local pizza restaurant. You enjoy a good meal and no one gets sick from E. coli or other food-borne illnesses. This is in large part because your local government conducts regular inspections of all food establishments to protect the health of customers.
7:30 p.m. Back at your house. You settle in for a quiet evening at home – one that is undisturbed by those annoying telemarketers calling you up to try to sell you something. This is because you have signed up with a state or federal no-call registry – a government service now enjoyed by over 60 million Americans.
8:00 p.m. You do a quick check of your e-mail – just one of the many services you enjoy over the internet every day. We all tend to think of the internet as the product of those talented and imaginative entrepreneurs in the high-tech companies. But the internet actually began with government programs that created ARPANET and later NSFNET, early computer networking systems that developed the software and networking infrastructure that form the foundations of today’s internet. The government also helped to fund research that led to web browsers like Internet Explorer and search engines like Google.
11:00 p.m. You go to bed. During your sleep, you are protected by a smoke detector that your city requires to be installed in every residence. Maybe you would have bought one of these yourself, but this law helps to ensure that everyone is protected from the dangers of fire.
4:00 a.m. You are asleep in your comfy bed. Unlike that time you stayed in a small inn in Costa Rica, where you were woken up regularly at 4 in the morning by the roosters crowing in the neighborhood. By law, no one can keep roosters in your neighborhood and so you remain in blissful slumber.

http://www.governmentisgood.com/articles.php?aid=1&p=3
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Yeah, I don't have any roosters crowing near me therefore everything the government does is good.

Did you like it when the government invaded Iraq? I mean the government did it therefore it had to be good.

gwb-trading · May 11, 2015

What a completely twisted article full of fabrications and half truths. Let's take a look at the realities related to a couple of the items in the article..

futurecurrents said:
Not perfect, but how govt is good in an ordinary day.. This should be required reading for all the dopey naive "Libertarians" out there.

6:30 a.m. You are awakened by your clock radio. You know it is actually 6:30 because the National Institute of Standards and Technology keeps the official time. And you can listen to your favorite radio station only because the Federal Communications Commission brings organization and coherence to our vast telecommunications system. It ensures, for example, that radio stations do not overlap and that stations signals are not interfered with by the numerous other devices – cell phones, satellite television, wireless computers, etc. – whose signals crowd our nation’s airwaves.
More...

The original technology of the NIST time server came out of AT&T Bell Labs and was used for maintaining synchronous telephone networks world-wide. NIST has been harshly criticized for decades for its inability to properly keep crime despite having the most expensive and finest equipment to do so. The British have been keeping accurate time since the 1700s. There is a reason that the world uses Greenwich mean time as the standard and not anything done by the U.S. government.

The FCC Part 68 and UL 15 standards are the weakest of all the major nations. The standards such as VDE in Germany are much better.

In terms of radio spectrum, the FCC has held back progress for years due to their poor policy and mismanagement. The non-interference standards used for radio spectrum were not invented by the FCC but by the private sector.

futurecurrents said:
6:39 a.m. You flip the switch on the coffee maker. There is no short in the outlet or in the electrical line and there is no resulting fire in your house. Why? Because when your house was being built, the electrical system had to be inspected to make sure it was properly installed – a service provided by your local government. And it was installed by an electrician who was licensed by your state government to ensure his competence and your safety.
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Let's first comment on who your town inspectors are. The inspectors are people who are so incompetent that they failed to make it in the trades. They now survive by taking $20 gifts (bribes) to pass stuff that they are incapable of figuring out.

No resulting fires in your house? From a broader level all the electrical items installed in your house must be "U.L. approved". The U.S. government has proven to be completely incapable of policing "U.L. approved" items, and will effectively let any piece of junk in from overseas with a fake U.L. compliance label . There are over 500,000 examples of electrical failures each year in the U.S. causing an associated 20,000 home fires leading to over 50 deaths.

Licensing? In many states HVAC people are not even licensed. They are the most incompetent of all the trade people in terms of not knowing the basics. What does it take to be licensed in a trade in most states? Take a test that a 5th grader can pass and provide a letter from someone stating you have worked in the trade area.

fhl · May 11, 2015

" the federal government actually gives you money every year to help pay for your house. It’s called a mortgage interest tax deduction and it is one of the larger benefit programs run by the federal government"

LOL- the gov't gives you money

good one, fraudboy

Tsing Tao · May 11, 2015

futurecurrents said:
5:30 p.m. As you drive home, you notice the tree-lined streets and the nice houses in your neighborhood – generally a pretty good place to live. Thanks again to government. Without zoning rules, you might have an auto body shop or a fast-food outlet move in next door. Or worse yet, a fertilizer plant or a toxic waste site. But there are no noxious smells in the air, no excessive and dangerous traffic on your street – thanks to your government. Pleasant and livable neighborhoods are only possible with extensive government planning and zoning regulation.
5:35 p.m. As you approach your house, you see your child coming down the sidewalk. The government-provided sidewalk. The sidewalk that allows your child to walk to the neighbor’s house down the street to play with a friend without the risk of being hit by a car.
5:45 p.m. You go for a jog in your local public park.
6:30 p.m. You take your family out for dinner at a local pizza restaurant. You enjoy a good meal and no one gets sick from E. coli or other food-borne illnesses. This is in large part because your local government conducts regular inspections of all food establishments to protect the health of customers.
7:30 p.m. Back at your house. You settle in for a quiet evening at home – one that is undisturbed by those annoying telemarketers calling you up to try to sell you something. This is because you have signed up with a state or federal no-call registry – a government service now enjoyed by over 60 million Americans.
8:00 p.m. You do a quick check of your e-mail – just one of the many services you enjoy over the internet every day. We all tend to think of the internet as the product of those talented and imaginative entrepreneurs in the high-tech companies. But the internet actually began with government programs that created ARPANET and later NSFNET, early computer networking systems that developed the software and networking infrastructure that form the foundations of today’s internet. The government also helped to fund research that led to web browsers like Internet Explorer and search engines like Google.
11:00 p.m. You go to bed. During your sleep, you are protected by a smoke detector that your city requires to be installed in every residence. Maybe you would have bought one of these yourself, but this law helps to ensure that everyone is protected from the dangers of fire.
4:00 a.m. You are asleep in your comfy bed. Unlike that time you stayed in a small inn in Costa Rica, where you were woken up regularly at 4 in the morning by the roosters crowing in the neighborhood. By law, no one can keep roosters in your neighborhood and so you remain in blissful slumber.

http://www.governmentisgood.com/articles.php?aid=1&p=3
More...

Almost all of this is state government, not federal. The majority of issues those who are against the government have are with Federal overreach. Not state.

Try again?

gwb-trading · May 11, 2015

Tsing Tao said:
Almost all of this is state government, not federal. The majority of issues those who are against the government have are with Federal overreach. Not state.

Try again?
More...

This is exactly the point that FC and others don't seem to get. Most "conservatives" are very supportive of good local government and schools. They want local services and infrastructure (water, sewer, etc.) delivered efficiently to the local community.

Furthermore the "conservatives" want a limited role of Federal government and a reduction of the obscene federal budgets & overreach. The Federal government in the U.S. was originally established to provide for a national defense, it's role has grown to be much larger including all sorts of social benefit programs with questionable results.

fhl · May 12, 2015

REPORT: Federal regs cost $1.88 TRILLION in 2014...

fhl · May 12, 2015

The FDA has issued a draft guideline to change the policy on blood donations. It had previously prohibited donations from homosexual men.

The new guideline? Homosexual blood welcome. Yikes!

Scientists say this change is long overdue-
and we'll never see snow again because of global warming.

#science
#government

fhl · May 13, 2015

fhl · May 23, 2015

An investment firm created an inflation index comprised of the prices of the top 500 items purchased in the largest 50 cities.

The government claims that prices have gone up by 7.2% since 2011.
But the cost of living for what people actually buy, (top 500 items in largest 50 cities) has gone up over 47% since 2011. This also implies that we've had a massive loss in real gdp over this time period, since a higher inflation rate wipes out nominal gains.

http://patrickbarron.blogspot.com/2015/05/us-inflation-up-471-and-real-gdp-down.html

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chapwood-index-reveals-government-grossly-120000951.html