A Do-Nothing Government

Right up front, let me apologize if you thought, from the title of this missive, that I was going to attack the current government as a "do-nothing government;" nothing could be further from the truth.
This current government, like so many before it, is far from "do-nothing."
Very far, I'm afraid.
I know this will offend the people who are concerned about the poor and feel the government should be doing more to help them; the people who believe the political system is corrupt and the government should do something to fix it; and the people who believe the economy is a mess and the government should do something to straighten it out.
But quite honestly, at this point, I think the best thing that could happen is that the president and congress stay deadlocked, unable to get anything done.
See, I have this great faith that, eventually, people will fined the best solutions.
I've seen it over and over. Go back to the horrible tornadoes that ripped apart much of north Alabama last spring. Go through north Alabama now and you'll find the people who are still waiting for help are those who are waiting for the government and FEMA, while the areas where things are getting done - where houses are being rebuilt and lives put back together -are areas where organizations like Christian Service Mission (just to name one of many) organized churches and volunteers and regular people from all over the country and provided the means to get started successfully rebuilding lives and communities.
Visit the gulf coast of Mississippi, ground zero for Hurricane Katrina. While New Orleans - which wasn't devastated by the actual hurricane but by a levee that broke because government hadn't taken care of it - still complains about people not moving back and government not keeping its promises to rebuild the communities, in places like Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis and Long Beach ordinary people organized by civic groups and churches came in to clean up and start the rebuilding process. Every day it seems like a new road is being finished and a new business being opened. As Biloxi mayor A.J. Holloway said, "This is going to be the year of ribbon-cuttings."
In 2008, a flood in destroyed huge parts of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. FEMA predicted that 40 percent of the city would be never recover. But Cedar Rapids is back on its feet today because citizens stepped up when needed and united to save property, rebuild, restore, and get the community back on its feet.
After World War II, the poverty rate in America consistently fell, until in 1969 it was at the lowest point in almost a century at 12.1 percent. But in 1965 then-President Lyndon Johnson instituted the well-meaning War on Poverty, and despite spending more on this war than in all the wars from the Revolution to the year 2000 (roughly $16 trillion), the poverty rate has not been affected.
I read a story the other day that was written to point out the unfairness of the state of Alabama's tough anti-illegal immigration law. In it, the owner of Max's Deli in Birmingham spoke out, saying that out of fear of reprisal even his legal immigrant workers had quit. But then the story goes on to say "To replace his legal workers, who he says feel compelled to leave because of the law, (deli owner Steve) Dubrinsky said he offered one job to a woman who wouldn't take the work because she would lose her food stamps. He also said he offered a job to another person who worked two hours before quitting. 'It's easier said than done,' he said of finding new workers."
Did you get that? A unemployed woman wouldn't take the job because she would lose her government benefits! With the government providing so many free benefits, many people simply choose not to work.
And can you blame them?
Maybe you remember reading about activists in Pennsylvania who believed government should provide the poor with free cell phones. And then there is this story where Connecticut's U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro wants government to provide free diapers.
Talk about your "nanny state" - this, to me, robs people of their dignity; the dignity that comes from being able to take care of yourself and your family.
Yes, I know the argument is that these people are not in a position to take care of their families if they wanted to.
But we've seen that all the good intentions of the government to take care of people over the last 60 years has only taken care of government employees, because it creates processes that create government jobs that enrich those people who get government jobs but only continues the cycle of poverty for those who find being taken care of by the government is easier than actually taking jobs (like working in Max's Deli) that could lead to self-sufficiency, dignity, and the beginning of the end of the poverty cycle.
That's why I'd like to see a "do nothing" government.
It would hurt for awhile. But eventually, I'm convinced, good people would step up and do what they should have been doing all along, what they used to do in the 1700s and 1800s during the times of the First and Second Great Awakenings when charitable organizations sprang to life all over the country to care for the poor.
We could learn from our forefathers. From 1818 to 1824, New York's "Society for the Prevention of Pauperism" annually printed its top causes of poverty. The first three causes were ignorance, idleness, and intemperance; then came "want of economy," imprudent and hasty marriages, and lotteries; then three specific institutions: pawnbrokers, brothels, and gambling houses.
And as hard as it would be to preach those nine issues now, even in the early 1800s the 10th reason for poverty might surprise you: "charities that gave away money too freely." (Taken from "The First Annual Report of the Managers of the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism in the City of New York, pp 12-22).
Even then, too easy subsidy of people's lives was seen as destructive, both morally and materially.
Somewhere, I read the story about a former advisor to one-time presidential candidate Michael Dukakis who said he did not give money to beggars because "I pay taxes for social workers to determine who is truly needy."
As long as government says it will solve the problem, citizens won't have to.
That's why if government would just stop, I believe even more good people would join in, and then we'd really see something good start to happen.