Tsunami: The people, not the government, will do the real work

Remember those who are no longer with us. Support those who will rebuild. Governments aren't in a position to really do much this time. There are millions of people affected. The funding is paltry.

All these years the people have been preached to about "what government does to create conditions to improve your lives." In return, the public is told, not asked, to pay taxes.

Yet, when things go bad, where's the government? Are they there "making the conditions better?" No, it's the people who are going to have to do the work.

Tsunami watch: Government creates conditions to create wealth; so where are they when those conditions fall apart?

I get tired of government telling the public, "Because we, as the government create a society that allows you to earn money, you owe it to us when you make money. You are only able to make money because of the conditions we created. So you must share the wealth when you succeed."

Actually, the reason "I do what I do" is in spite of society.

Sure, compared to the Tsunami-devastation, I suppose government might have a point: The public can only create wealth if society has the necessary conditions.

Yet, who's really doing the work? Not government. I don't see governments showing up to fix this problem.

The ones who are really going to have to "put this back together" are the people.

Society commands tax revenues to create conditions; but then does nothing to accept responsibility for the failure of those conditions.

If things are going well, people pay taxes to society.

If things go bad, it's the individual's fault.

If individuals have the bear of burden of bearing the loss, why does society only share in risk-reward when there is a reward?

If governments want to scream, "We do so much to allow you to make money, so you owe us," then I think government needs to take a look at itself.

It's all well and good to scream about "what the public owes government," but I'd like to see government also say, "We screwed up, the reason you can't create wealth is because of our fault."

They don't do that. They blame the individual when things go bad.

That's inconsistent.

If government can compel tax revenues because of "conditions created," where is government's accountability when things go bad?

They only want to be "part of the issue" when there is money to be taken. Government is like an insurance company: When things go bad, they'll come up with all sorts of excuses not to cover "their" end of the bargain.

They talk about "the conditions" "allowing" the citizen to make money.

Funny how they don't also talk about the "bad conditions which government creates" that get in the way of making that wealth.