IM PRO-S.G.B. AND I VOTE. I should explain: S.G.B. stands for a phrase thats become ubiquitous enough over the years that I think the initials can do the job. It stands for Some Government Bureaucrat. With election time nearing, youll probably be hearing the (uncondensed) phrase in at least a handful of ads - mostly related to ballot measures. Youll hear pitchpeople and commentators insisting that they want to make their OWN decisions, rather than having Some Government Bureaucrat do it for me. In some states, youll still hear about Obamacare bringing Some Government Bureaucrat between you and your doctor. The term is effective because it plants a similar image in all of our minds: some dweeby guy telling us in a nasally voice that we cant get our refund because we made a mistake on page six, line 23. We all know what the phrase means. Or do we? Over the past ten years, weve witnessed some horrible workplace tragedies: mine cave-ins, oil rig explosions, factory fires, all with extensive loss of life. Do we ever ask ourselves how many lives and limbs mightve been preserved if Some Government Bureaucrat had let those CEOs know that their next round of safety violations would prompt a response more severe than some trivial, pocket-change fine? Do we ask ourselves how many food contamination scares and/or deaths would have been prevented - or actually HAVE been prevented - by food or drug companies aware that S.G.B. is peering over their (figurative) shoulders? Or how many people wouldnt have lost their homes, their life savings, or their coverage if only S.G.B. had gotten on the asses (figuratively, again) of the banks, credit card companies, and insurance carriers who perfected so many schemes to rip off their customers? Folks, I GET frustration with government. I GET it. Its hard to see both sides of the equation, because when government inconveniences or obstructs you, you tend to feel it in some direct manner, while its benefits and amenities are kinda just THERE, a given. So its very tempting to fall for these anti-S.G.B. campaigns. Of course, the modern extreme of this mindset is the tea baggers - folks too clueless to get that theyre picketing for their own water to be less clean, their own workplaces to be less safe, and their own financial companies to be less accountable to them. To the powerful industrialists underwriting the tea party, a populist movement against regulation is an absolute dream. I imagine them laughing up a storm as they contemplate how much theyre saving in lobbyists fees by having their own victims handling the task voluntarily. Unlike the working-class conservatives at those rallies, the elites KNOW whats really at stake - they know how complete and unbounded their power can be if those pesky S.G.B.s can just be shoved out of the way, like they were by the Reagan and Bush II regimes in particular. Rehabilitating those bureaucracies has been one of countless tasks left to Obama (and then obstructed at every turn). Generalization is always risky in politics, but I have one rule I tend to adhere to: If I see an ad with someone complaining about Some Government Bureaucrat in it, I figure Ill likely be voting AGAINST the position that ad takes. Because nine times out of ten, behind that empathetic pose stands someone whose ambitions could be very destructive to my well-being - and who doesnt want any S.G.B. standing in the way of those ambitions.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 22:36:03 +0000
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