Could the problem be us?

Yesterday, Aug 4, 2011, about midday mountain time, when the
Dow Jones Industrial Average was down over 300 points, one pundit on an MSNBC financial program speculated that perhaps investors were awaiting some word from THE PRESIDENT to alleviate the fear, or some such. The Prez didn’t appear (I think he was at a birthday bash) and the Dow average closed down over 500 points.

This morning, on the NBC Today Show, there was a story about
the 14 deaths (a record) that have occurred in Yosemite National Park this year. In the lead in to the story, one of the talking heads suggested that the park should do something to prevent these
tragedies. (Note: “The Park” probably will not do anything. Employees of the park, i.e. “the government” might be expected, by some wishful thinkers, to take some action.)

Earlier this year, Wyoming experienced some relatively minor
flooding due to record snow pack compounded by some heavy rainfall. I say “minor” because in Wyoming the financial losses were in the low millions of dollars. (There was some tragic loss of lives, but that is a different story.) Our (Wyo)state government, who consistently bemoans interference from the feds, wasted no time in calling on FEMA (the feds) to do a damage assessment and later filed for a federal disaster declaration in order to receive federal aid for the damages. This from one of the few states that has a budget surplus and billions in savings.

Do we detect a pattern here? We as U S Citizens seem to want
the government out of our business and cut down to size until there is a problem. Then “we” scream for the government to DO SOMETHING. Usually that “something” translates as “bring money.” And the politicians are all too happy to accommodate us, as long as “help” for us can be converted to “votes” for them. But we want lower taxes, stronger
budget, etc. Yeah, I detect a pattern: national schizophrenia.

(DO NOT write your congress person asking for assistance for
this. They will answer by starting some sort
of new national mental health program (NMHP) as soon as they figure out how to turn that into votes (GIMME).)

Yes, our government is too big, out of control, spending too
much. Perhaps if we the people stop demanding our government show up with a magic wand on every bad day and solve every problem or remedy every setback, then maybe the government could work within a budget that would have a lesser impact on our budgets.