With Friends Like These…

A tent city housing homeless people in downtown Las Vegas

If you want to know whose side the Government is on just look at what they do during the bad times, and more importantly, who they do it to. For some good examples of everyday ways in which Government eliminates competition by the average citizen in favor of their corporate masters you should read this essay by Charles (Radgeek) Johnson. However, this dedication to squashing independent entrepreneurial options kicks into high gear once the economy falters. In the current downturn, it didn’t take long for people to figure out the value of direct sales, either online (Ebay, Craigslist, etc.) or through yard sales, to earn extra money and/or acquire necessary things cheaply. Neither did it take long for the Government to announce that they would be cracking down on this newly blossoming marketplace which overwhelmingly benefits the everyday citizen. At a time when the common worker is most in need of secondary sources of income, this belies the frequent claim that the Government is there to serve the people. In truth, the Government is there to serve certain people and you’re not usually one of them.

This is more evident than ever in the Government’s response to the current recession. Congress tripped all over itself to authorize bailouts for the financial sector that was largely responsible for the situation through bad lending practices that bordered on outright fraud. The next thing they did was announce that they would be hiring more IRS agents to audit tax returns in an effort to squeeze more blood out of an already dry stone to fund those bailouts. In the eyes of those looking down on us from Capital Hill, the people who authorized loans to borrowers that had no business taking out those loans are “too big” to fail, but those not so big people facing foreclosure should be punished for their lack of foresight.

Things didn’t unfold quite as quickly with the auto bailout, because there was a union to bust. Before Congress could sign off on the billions of dollars to offset the decades of bad management within the Big Three they had to first blackmail the workers into agreeing to pay cuts, lowered benefits, and a betrayal of the retirees who in many cases literally bled and died for those pay and benefits. When the bankers who drove their companies into the floor wanted their bonuses, a contract was a contract and there was nothing that could be done about it. However, when an opportunity to put the screws to the workers presented itself, the union contracts were something to be torn up and rewritten at will.

This type of behavior is by no means a new development. During the Great Depression the Government payed farmers (many against their will) to destroy crops in order to artificially drive up food prices. While perfectly good food rotted in the fields, thousands starved in the streets. Included among them were many whose jobs as farm workers were eliminated by those same policies and others who could no longer afford food at the artificially inflated prices. Similarly, the Retail Maintenance Act in 1937 mandated restrictions on how low prices could be set forcing prices to artificially high levels when people had precious little money available to spend. Furthermore, New Deal programs were funded largely by excise taxes levied on things that mostly impacted poorer people, such as food, clothing, and electricity. These programs mostly benefited corporate interests at the expense of the working class and often resulted in the elimination of jobs during a time when they were already scarce.

So if you are a member of the working class and you think the Government is your friend, I would hate to meet one of your enemies in a dark alley.