Whose job is it anyway?

It should be becoming slowly obvious to even the most contrary observer that a lot is not right with the way government works. It's not just the "little countries" like Greece or Spain that we have to whip into shape, the big countries need to be doing their part to show the way, to exhibit a bit of leadership, in getting things in their respective countries sorted. If you have sacred cows, however, they will not be slaughtered, or even touched. But what is the consequence of such?

The consequences are really quite obvious: if you have no money, certain things cannot be done. Who has decided that defense, for example, is inordinately more important than, say, communications or transportation or health? And what do you do about those things that simply cannot be solved by the ubiquitous, omnipotent market?

An Hungarian friend, a student of the infamous Chicago school of economics, recently asked me if I knew how many Chicago-school economists were needed to change a light bulb. Of course, I told him, I had no idea. The answer, he said, was "none"; the market will take care of it.

And there we have the rub (again). Whose job is it to ensure that the citizens of a country can be in a position to pursue their liberty or happiness? Who should finance the roads that everyone uses? Who should provide the infrastructure for communications that everyone uses? Who should be responsible for ensuring that every citizen has access to quality education? Who should be responsible for ensuring that those who have suffered doing something for everybody (like the military) are properly taken care of when they can't take care of themselves? Who should be there to determine what the minimum standard of dignity is for a resident of a country? Yes, of course, the government ... but the government in the form of an effective system of representation that sees to it that what is considered important for everyone – not just for a select few – is accomplished. And that's what we don't have right now and what we are having less of each and every day.