Be inspired by this video of the Landfill Harmonic Orchestra. It shows people's amazing drive and creativity constructing something good out of a bad environment:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/aei-ideas/posts/~3/RVIxuzmrMHk/
Imagine the many ways Portland government would stop or impede such constructive behavior.
Obviously these musicians are rooting around in garbage which is unhealthy. The search and re-use of landfill stuff here is prohibited as unsanitary. They are building home made musical instruments. Here such a business requires a business license to operate; at the rate Oregon is moving toward occupational licensing, they may soon be required to be trained and licensed in musical instrument services. Of course they are playing musical arrangements that here require payment of royalty fees. And here, since volunteer work playing for an orchestra might be considered unfair labor or even exploitation, they will be required to join the union and be paid a livable, minimum wage. And of course, over here if their orchestra is more than 50 people, they must be provided with health benefits.
But where exactly to perform within Portland's urban growth boundaries since land is so expensive? Perhaps they will have to move outside Portland, probably back to Paraguay.
This little thought experiment may perhaps lead to thinking more deeply about government's relationship to society. How does government help or hinder the development of the social good?
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Thursday, August 08, 2013
The Common Good—Constructive Human Activity or Big Government?
Be inspired by this video of the Landfill Harmonic Orchestra that shows the amazing creativity, drive, and constructive power of the human spirit in the face of bad conditions:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/aei-ideas/posts/~3/RVIxuzmrMHk/
Yes, there is a lesson. Contrast this with Detroit which shows how this wonderful human spirit and endeavor so natural in the human species can be crushed and disfigured. In the face of failure and horrible human consequences, Detroit's political class continues to produce a constant trend of increasing debt, now at $19 billion with 47 public employee unions with pay scales comparable to the old Autoworkers. Meanwhile, 79% of children are born to unwed mothers, only 3% of 4th graders who meet national standards, unemployed workers who can't read can't get a job, there is wait time of 40 minutes to an hour for emergency services, 62% have fled the city. It would be astonishing to deny that it was the big-government liberal politicians who drove the city to bankruptcy, to its inevitable corruption, to the unrestrained public employee entitlement mentality, and to its moral collapse. How has this big government helped the human spirit? Sure some seem to think Detroit was a victim; it became a prisoner of its dependence on the auto industry. But then why did not the politicians and government respond to the societal problem as people seem to think is the purpose of government? Can we really say Detroit government serves the common good?
So then ask: who kept the same worthless politicians in office? They couldn't have done it without the votes of the citizens. But why exactly would you keep reelecting people who not only fleece the city in every legal and illegal way possible but can't provide basic services? But Detroit is not an isolated case of societal harm by government, so how is it that so many can believe in big government as reflecting the common good, as the means for solving societies problems, as the source of economic growth, as the source of hope…still? Why aren't the history lessons of government large and small, compelling?
Liberals constant hold over Detroit, power unchecked by democracy as it was and continues to be, produces the consequences of such power—incompetence, magical thinking, cynicism and sometimes criminality—so obvious in Detroit but still apparently impossible for its citizens to discern (at least of those who have not fled). We might pity Detroit but is not the same seeds of harm to the common good not at work in other cities, at other levels, in other countries?
Detroit has a PeopleMover largely abandoned, it is building a hockey arena. But Government doesn't produce harmonic orchestras, or the common good, people do. Use government to harm people's constructive activities and take away from them for big government monuments and you harm the common good.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/aei-ideas/posts/~3/RVIxuzmrMHk/
Yes, there is a lesson. Contrast this with Detroit which shows how this wonderful human spirit and endeavor so natural in the human species can be crushed and disfigured. In the face of failure and horrible human consequences, Detroit's political class continues to produce a constant trend of increasing debt, now at $19 billion with 47 public employee unions with pay scales comparable to the old Autoworkers. Meanwhile, 79% of children are born to unwed mothers, only 3% of 4th graders who meet national standards, unemployed workers who can't read can't get a job, there is wait time of 40 minutes to an hour for emergency services, 62% have fled the city. It would be astonishing to deny that it was the big-government liberal politicians who drove the city to bankruptcy, to its inevitable corruption, to the unrestrained public employee entitlement mentality, and to its moral collapse. How has this big government helped the human spirit? Sure some seem to think Detroit was a victim; it became a prisoner of its dependence on the auto industry. But then why did not the politicians and government respond to the societal problem as people seem to think is the purpose of government? Can we really say Detroit government serves the common good?
So then ask: who kept the same worthless politicians in office? They couldn't have done it without the votes of the citizens. But why exactly would you keep reelecting people who not only fleece the city in every legal and illegal way possible but can't provide basic services? But Detroit is not an isolated case of societal harm by government, so how is it that so many can believe in big government as reflecting the common good, as the means for solving societies problems, as the source of economic growth, as the source of hope…still? Why aren't the history lessons of government large and small, compelling?
Liberals constant hold over Detroit, power unchecked by democracy as it was and continues to be, produces the consequences of such power—incompetence, magical thinking, cynicism and sometimes criminality—so obvious in Detroit but still apparently impossible for its citizens to discern (at least of those who have not fled). We might pity Detroit but is not the same seeds of harm to the common good not at work in other cities, at other levels, in other countries?
Detroit has a PeopleMover largely abandoned, it is building a hockey arena. But Government doesn't produce harmonic orchestras, or the common good, people do. Use government to harm people's constructive activities and take away from them for big government monuments and you harm the common good.
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