I keep hearing the "gobble goop" coming our of politician's mouths about infrastructure, but do any of them know what they are talking about? I don't think so. How about you? That is the point of this blog.
It seems like we hear every day about chuck holes in our roads and that we need to spend more money at the federal level on "infrastructure". We are all concerned about chuck holes in our roads, but is this really a federal government issue? Check out these numbers. Per data that I got off the inter net we have a total of about 4.12 million miles of roads in the USA. These are divided between different governmental units from federal down to individual townships. The quarter mile road to my home is a dirt road maintained by my township and has nothing to do with the federal government. My state collects plenty of money from state gas tax to maintain my road just fine.
For the record, we only have 136,000 miles of federal roads in the USA. This only amounts to 3.3% of our total road system, so why do so many politicians keep pointing to this as a big crisis? I have been advocating for years that we should get the federal government out of the road business. I think that it may have been a good idea at one time to build a system of interstate highways like Germany had back in the 1940's, but once most were built, it now time to turn all roads back to the states.
I don't know why it is that many people keep trying to make almost every local problem a "federal" issue. The pattern is that once the federal government has gotten involved in helping to solve a problem, we can "never" get them back out. This type of things happens all over the place. Look at education. I went to a local country school that was 100% controlled locally and it did a fine job. We now have duplicated functions at the city, county, state and federal level. Why is that? Is it better? I don't think so. Just wait until the federal government starts licensing school teachers or lawyers or even barbers. That is what will happen if we let this keep happening.
The whole infrastructure argument just plays into the hands of our federal government politicians who want more and more power for their egos. Many of us citizens play right into the hands of these politicians when we think that things like highway speeds should be the same all over the USA. Are you starting to see how the argument about infrastructure is a scheme to federalize our lives and we all need to stop this, It is not a good idea and we all have to understand that!
PS--If you have read any of John Locke's writings, then you know that he had a lot influence on those who wrote our constitution. He warned that the states should be very cautious about delegating too much authority to a federal government. He proposed that it is better to error on the side of "not" giving authority over "giving". He knew that once authority is given that it can "never" be taken back. I would add that to give authority to a federal government it should not only be "better", but at least "10% better". You can ask Great Britain about their giving authority to the Common Market to confirm what I am talking about. Further, they should have paid attention to their own John Locke. Look at what has happened due to our own federal legislature as they delegated too much authority to the different government agencies. They have lost control such that our vote for them has also been taken from us, the voters.
PS--How about a few facts about gas taxes? The federal tax per gallon is $0.184 and for California it is $0.552. Why don't we "add" the federal tax to the state tax and get the federal government out of the road business? Notice that the federal government collects 25% of the road tax, but only takes care of 3.3% of our roads. Does that give you an idea about the efficiency of our federal government? Let's drain the swamp!!!
It seems like we hear every day about chuck holes in our roads and that we need to spend more money at the federal level on "infrastructure". We are all concerned about chuck holes in our roads, but is this really a federal government issue? Check out these numbers. Per data that I got off the inter net we have a total of about 4.12 million miles of roads in the USA. These are divided between different governmental units from federal down to individual townships. The quarter mile road to my home is a dirt road maintained by my township and has nothing to do with the federal government. My state collects plenty of money from state gas tax to maintain my road just fine.
For the record, we only have 136,000 miles of federal roads in the USA. This only amounts to 3.3% of our total road system, so why do so many politicians keep pointing to this as a big crisis? I have been advocating for years that we should get the federal government out of the road business. I think that it may have been a good idea at one time to build a system of interstate highways like Germany had back in the 1940's, but once most were built, it now time to turn all roads back to the states.
I don't know why it is that many people keep trying to make almost every local problem a "federal" issue. The pattern is that once the federal government has gotten involved in helping to solve a problem, we can "never" get them back out. This type of things happens all over the place. Look at education. I went to a local country school that was 100% controlled locally and it did a fine job. We now have duplicated functions at the city, county, state and federal level. Why is that? Is it better? I don't think so. Just wait until the federal government starts licensing school teachers or lawyers or even barbers. That is what will happen if we let this keep happening.
The whole infrastructure argument just plays into the hands of our federal government politicians who want more and more power for their egos. Many of us citizens play right into the hands of these politicians when we think that things like highway speeds should be the same all over the USA. Are you starting to see how the argument about infrastructure is a scheme to federalize our lives and we all need to stop this, It is not a good idea and we all have to understand that!
PS--If you have read any of John Locke's writings, then you know that he had a lot influence on those who wrote our constitution. He warned that the states should be very cautious about delegating too much authority to a federal government. He proposed that it is better to error on the side of "not" giving authority over "giving". He knew that once authority is given that it can "never" be taken back. I would add that to give authority to a federal government it should not only be "better", but at least "10% better". You can ask Great Britain about their giving authority to the Common Market to confirm what I am talking about. Further, they should have paid attention to their own John Locke. Look at what has happened due to our own federal legislature as they delegated too much authority to the different government agencies. They have lost control such that our vote for them has also been taken from us, the voters.
PS--How about a few facts about gas taxes? The federal tax per gallon is $0.184 and for California it is $0.552. Why don't we "add" the federal tax to the state tax and get the federal government out of the road business? Notice that the federal government collects 25% of the road tax, but only takes care of 3.3% of our roads. Does that give you an idea about the efficiency of our federal government? Let's drain the swamp!!!
