Does it bother you that...

The USA seems to be having a lot of crises recently, like in the recent past.

The latest "crisis" I read and hear about is the US Mail, like the Postal Service may shut down for lack of funds, and other reasons.

But before that we have had other crises, too, like the also recent budget crisis.

What bothers me is two things. One is simply reacting to bad consequences is poor compared to acting to prevent bad consequences. Now something as simple as running a postal system meets that criteria, to me. And second is the seemingly preferred method to rule by crisis management. Now that is a poor method to rule by, again, to me.

And I don't fault the present rulers in charge. Rather some of these simple things like running a postal system take serious management over decades. Even the fellows who created our Constitution mandated a postal system, and I guess assumed there would be responsible people to enact and manage their mandate after they passed on.

To pile on, I still wonder why over the last century we in the USA have voted for politicians who seem to have as a main job requirement to create more things that they can spend on, rather than "fight" over priorities within budgets to make our country, and us, better off (like public electricity and running water, and maintenance thereof). And for that matter, our federal politicians haven't been able to even pass a budget in the recent past (they have passed continuing resolutions, which is no way to run a country).

And another "rub" for me, is that it bothers me that unelected Americans, like appointed and hired bureaucrats, can in effect (de facto) create new taxes (often called regulatory mandates that come with new expenses) without any vote from me. Examples include what the federal EPA is doing, as well as the federal National Labor Relations Board is doing.

And another "rub" is that it seems commonly accepted that both elected politicians and appointed bureaucrats can say what laws they will and won't bother to enforce, all without any objection from "we the people". It truly bothers me that people like that become the judge and jury, even though we have other legal means to make this happen for good reason. Now I also understand that in the last half century it has been popular for our legislatures to create new laws without any funding to enforce these laws, which is also an option not pursued, including by the voters.

I bothers me how easy it is for lazy Americans (who won't work) to filch off the poor. My obervations where I live on the Cumberland Plateau in east Tennessee is that this method involves manipulating the government and food bank methods designed to help our truly poor. Lot's of lazy local Americans do this kind of manipulation routinely, and breed more during their time.

And last, for me, it always bothered me, and it still does, that our federal taxes are so large that huge grants of federal money are passed back to the states in the form of block grants. This system was expanded back in the 1970's as I recall, and at the time seemed like a good way for state legislators to get money without taxing their citizens with state taxes. But now we are going to "pay the piper" so to speak. If federal funds are reduced, so may state taxes have to go up, or wonderful services reduced. And add in the friction of the federal patronage system and who gets limited block grants and who does not, and depending on who controls the federal purse strings, also anticipate much friction in these next five years, or so.

Now I think many others have their own "bothers", too. And there is never a good time to start or even join in any period of change. But for sure changes to the status quo of the last half century are coming, and now is as good a time as any to start. The finish can come later.

And that finish is other courses of action. The present path we are on is not the only path we can take. Now that is another post for me, but here is a hint. How about we all be responsible for ourselves and our Families, and then our society second. Here in the new world USA, we still have that opportunity, I think.