Big Government Planning; Why Does it Persist?

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Image: Flickr CC James Vaugh “WW II Propaganda – Nazi Germany”

I would have thought that we had more than enough recorded experience to disabuse even the most stubborn of us that big government planning is effective or useful.  But still we persist in applying this solution to all manner of problems and conditions.  Health care, safety standards, municipal planning, gambling addiction, alcoholism, child safety, education, transit, and on and on.  One does not have to look farther than the Calgary Herald or Canadian television news and documentaries to see the popularity of big government planning and big government control amongst the producers of this media fare, but they do no more than reflect faithfully the broader tastes and inclinations of the market.  For if the people recoiled at the suggestion of a governmental centrally controlled health system, they would stop listening to the media and experts telling them that such a system was a good idea and highly desirable.

No, depressingly we persist in allowing media and everyone around us to posit that big government planning and control will solve problems without adverse consequences.

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Image: Flickr CC Jeff Hall “Laughter”

What if every time someone suggested a big government planning authority, we burst out laughing with memories of Soviet economic performance in our minds?

What if we departed from this path?  What if every time someone suggested a big government planning authority, we burst out laughing with memories of Soviet economic performance in our minds?  Or recoiled in horror at the memory of German big government planning in Europe between 1933 and 1945.  Or with simple disdain with the litany of failed states and economies in our mind.  Could the idea that big government planning works and improves our lives persist?  Nay, it could not. 

The evidence is clear and unequivocal, and can only be defeated by popular perception and sentiment.  That and that alone defeats the evidence.  Popular sentiment translated into voting and decisional habit that are employed.  So let us stop accepting the premise that big government planning is good, desirable, necessary or permitted.  And let us not be polite any more – tell it like it is.  Laugh, cry or announce your views in a loud voice.  Use graphic, explosive and rude language.  And don’t let it rest.  Make it clear.

So let us stop accepting the premise that big government planning is good, desirable, necessary or permitted.  And let us not be polite any more – tell it like it is.  Laugh, cry or announce your views in a loud voice.  Use graphic, explosive and rude language.

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Image: Flickr CC Masayuki Takaku “Shout”

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