The Daily Show Illustrates the Shortsightedness of Government
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Arizona State Capitol Building for Sale | ||||
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The above video clip from The Daily Show, while very humorous, illustrates a fundamental problem of government: shortsightedness.
In this example, the State of Arizona is offering to sell the state capitol for $735 million and rent it back from the new owners.
“What happens next year when you have to pay rent?” asks Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones.
Sen. Lopez responds that the state government is more concerned about this year…they will deal with the next year’s budget (and subsequent budget) shortfalls when the time comes.
If this doesn’t illustrate the shortsightedness of government (at all levels), I don’t know what does. Our government officials do not look far beyond the immediate future (i.e. the next election). They don’t worry about the insolvency of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the long term financial difficulties of the bailouts etc, they will worry about those problems (which they created and will also blame on the free market, big business, or lack of regulation) when they can no longer pretend the problem doesn’t exist. If they are lucky, the other party will be in power by that time and the American public will turn its anger against that party by voting them out.
What the American public needs to understand is that whether the blue team or the red team controls the levers of power, this shortsighted mentality is standard operating procedure for both. They are not interested in solving long term problems but trying to appear as though they are.
Politicians will not be accountable for their deceitful actions until we, the people, hold them accountable.
…I won’t hold my breath.
