Do We Need the Government?

The eagle-eye sister sent me a note yesterday in which she asked whether it would really make any difference if Trump fired all those federal employees and shut down all those federal agencies.

Now understand that my sister is no conservative. She’s not looking for an excuse to explain why she went into the voting booth and pulled the lever for Trump.

In fact, my sister has been a poll-watcher and GOTV worker for every Democrat(ic) Presidential campaign (and some Congressional campaigns) since 2008.

But her comment got me thinking, and here’s what my thoughts turned out.

First, of all the advanced countries, we happen to have the largest percentage of our workforce (17%) being paid by the government of any country these days. And remember that we don’t just have a national government, we also have 50 state governments and a gazillion town governments as well.

Know what’s the biggest, single job occupation in California? School bus driver, okay?

They don’t even have school buses in most countries. Want to go to school in Laos? Get out of your house and walk.

In the Western Massachusetts town where I used to live, the kids get picked up by the school bus even if they live only one block away from the school.