But for the people I'm talking about (the unsuccessful ones) this is more like an article of faith than a rational, well-thought-out position. They sincerely believe the country would be better off with less government--possibly no government--than it has now. And at the same time, they'd probably be horrified if all the government-funded services in their communities disappeared. No police, no fire protection, no public libraries, no more carefully-maintained softball diamonds at public parks, no public schools, no state colleges, no street repair, no sewage treatment plants or water line maintenance, etc.
It's a particular form of selective vision combined with self-righteousness; a whole range of quietly useful government-provided services (see above) are conveniently ignored while they complain about the relatively small portion of the nation's tax dollars that go to programs they morally disapprove of.
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Date: 2009-04-25 06:02 pm (UTC)You know that.
But for the people I'm talking about (the unsuccessful ones) this is more like an article of faith than a rational, well-thought-out position. They sincerely believe the country would be better off with less government--possibly no government--than it has now. And at the same time, they'd probably be horrified if all the government-funded services in their communities disappeared. No police, no fire protection, no public libraries, no more carefully-maintained softball diamonds at public parks, no public schools, no state colleges, no street repair, no sewage treatment plants or water line maintenance, etc.
It's a particular form of selective vision combined with self-righteousness; a whole range of quietly useful government-provided services (see above) are conveniently ignored while they complain about the relatively small portion of the nation's tax dollars that go to programs they morally disapprove of.