And This is the Problem

The following was posted online by a friend on Facebook and at my school. I felt the need to respond.

The major problem I have with this whole story is the last line.  This story presumes that all these things required government involvement and regulation.  It also presumes because the government regulates these things, that it is socialism.  Socialism is the ownership of companies by the workers, but its is more realistically interpreted when the government owns and operates the business in the stead of the people.  That is how it realistically happens.  The fact of the matter is we are already a socialist nation.

The government owns banks, auto manufacturers, the student loan industry and several other things in the last 100 years.  Government involvement in health care is not bad but when our President talks of wanting a single payers system where the government pays for all health care, that is socialism.  The problem is that most people do not know or recognize socialism, or fascism, anymore.

I do have some other issues with this story as well.  I will deal with those now.

First, a I thought monopolies were not a good thing.  When they are run by a government, especially for an essential service like power, that is even more dangerous.  Also someone please tell me where in the Constitution where the federal government has any power to regulate "energy."  If anything this is a reserved power for the states to determine.

Second, the FCC is hugely unconstitutional.  How can the federal government regulate what I say and see on TV, like George Carlin's seven words you can't say on radio.  I believe the 1st Amendment states that Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech.  The FCC is a censor to our speech and abridges that liberty.

Thirdly, long before the National Weather Service people predicted the weather using things called almanacs.  I am not suggesting that we go back to those times but that was a service provided by private individuals, like Benjamin Franklin, long before the government got involved.  Also, there are plenty of satellites in orbit that were made by other people.  The Weather Channel I am sure has its own, that it paid NASA or another space agency to launch into orbit.

Fourth, the regulation of time is a power granted to the Congress is Article I, Sectio 8: "To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures," and therefore I have no problem with that.

Fifth, where in the Constitution does it say Congress can regulate a product like cars, how they are made, which fuel they can use, what standards they are built too.  The free markets can do this.  Cars are safer now because people have demanded safer cars in all make and models.  Not because Congress said so.  Also it is the job of the government to maintain roads, Article I, Sec. 8: "To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;"  This is also why the mail thing is not that big of a deal, but the point could me made that they are very bad at doing their job since they are always over budget, every year and not allowed to make changes to make them solvent.  I say make them fully private and let competition feed the lower prices of mail and package shipping.

Sixth, unions were doing a good job of protecting us from big business LONG before OSHA was passed.

Seventh, fire and police departments are an essential government function, even before they became professional careers.

Eighth, the internet may have been created by DARPA, but it is largely supported and spread through private enterprise.