July 16, 2007

Logical, Constitutional Laundry


In a way, Ron Paul is a lot like that mother figure who screams at you for not doing your laundry in the month before you're shipped out to college. Of course my mother always did my laundry all the way up until the end. I completely ignored her requests to teach me how to do this mind numbingly easy task.

And then I learned how to do my laundry.

Paul would argue that America is more than capable of taking care of its own without the interference of a federal government. In "his society," it is the consumer groups that take care of its less fortunate citizens-- meaning that the less fortunate people needing better health care, housing and education would look to the likes of Google, Microsoft and AT&T. OK maybe not those companies specifically, but after watching the 2008 Republican Presidential candidate hopeful speak to employees at the Googleplex, I sort of understand why he's so polarized toward the free market.

Taxes are something, I'd argue, we need to pay more of because we're not seeing results in basic sectors of our society. If governments do not have enough money to spend on things everyone needs, such as public transportation, then we'll simply be stuck with the costly alternative that we may not always be able to afford.

Paul's argument challenges my original train of thought because some things do work outside the spectrum of government regulation. I would cite Newspapers as one such example. If you look at how a newspaper would gain credibility, it certainly doesn't happen overnight. It (arguably) doesn't happen over a decade either. Take the New York Times for instance, they became a symbol for the national press because of their consistent ability to inform the masses of truth. If they had not then they'd never have survived in this new world where we have an Internet.

In Paul's mind, we've been living in this perpetual state of dependence where the government is forever doing our laundry and warning that we'll have to learn sooner or later. Either that or we'll have dirty clothes on all the time. Who's to say if this is correct logic outside of the argument.

Check out the video of his appearance at the Googleplex below:

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