There are people who, disturbed by “big government” today and its tendency to curb the advantages they might gain if their competitiveness were allowed free flow, demand “less govern- ment.” Alas, there is no such thing as less government, merely changes in government. If the libertarians had their way, the distant bureaucracy would vanish and the local bully would be in charge. Personally, I prefer the distant bureaucracy, which may not find me, over the local bully, who certainly will. And all historical precedent shows a change to localism to be for the worse.
—Isaac Asimov, Nice Guys Finish First, collected in The Sun Shines Bright, 1981
As anyone who has lived in a Rocky Mountain town can say, Distant bullies are pretty bad too.
But that’s a sort of unique situation. Or it was until Reagan. See, the entire Rocky Mountain range is treated as a sort of internal colony.
Resources are extracted, but the people who own the companies doing the extraction all pretty much live on one of the coasts.
And then every store is also owned by someone who lives on one of the coasts.
This means that any real wealth produced in those states, quickly leaves those states.
A lot of towns in the area never really had a “down town” in the first place, and with the creation of Walmart and such, no one else gets a downtown either.
The answer of course is a bigger government. But it has to be free of corporate influence.
Which might just take a very big government. Like expanding the House and Supreme Court big.
—Isaac Asimov, Nice Guys Finish First, collected in The Sun Shines Bright, 1981
As anyone who has lived in a Rocky Mountain town can say, Distant bullies are pretty bad too.
But that’s a sort of unique situation. Or it was until Reagan. See, the entire Rocky Mountain range is treated as a sort of internal colony.
Resources are extracted, but the people who own the companies doing the extraction all pretty much live on one of the coasts.
And then every store is also owned by someone who lives on one of the coasts.
This means that any real wealth produced in those states, quickly leaves those states.
A lot of towns in the area never really had a “down town” in the first place, and with the creation of Walmart and such, no one else gets a downtown either.
The answer of course is a bigger government. But it has to be free of corporate influence.
Which might just take a very big government. Like expanding the House and Supreme Court big.
Both are desperately needed.