Fatalism or to hell in a hand basket?

In a post today, Paul Krugman worries that we are becoming a people overcome by fatalism. Is that true, or do we just believe that the country has gone to hell in a hand-basket? Is there a difference?

As you look around at housing, joblessness, government budgets, the failures in our education system, there is no denying that we have reached a low point not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930's. But, to be called fatalistic, must we also believe that there is no way out of our dilemma?

In earlier posts, I have lamented the overlap of governments. Why can't we start there? We could reduce the numbers of government officials, the infrastructure needed to support large government workforces each occupying its own set of buildings, having its own equipment and supplies but oftentimes delivering overlapping services. We could do this and yet keep the most important of the programs currently in place.

The elimination of redundant government versus the elimination of programs works for the citizenry, but it does not work for government officials and their staffs.

A couple of days ago, in the local paper, the sheriff gave notice that she wants an additional two million dollars in next year's budget to be added to her current budget of $66,000,000.

The county has approximately 256,000 residents. Included in the county is a medium size city of about 125,000 people, several small towns and cities. A large public university with a student population of about 50,000 is located in the county. Many of the cities and the university have their own police departments wherein the Sheriff's department is not responsible to police.

With these populations subtracted from the policing responsibilities of the Sheriff, a rural population of less than 100,000 falls into the Sheriff's bailiwick. The rural land-mass is the responsibility of the Sheriff's office. Also, the Sheriff owns the county jail and provides a prisoner housing and administration service to the municipalities within the county. Likewise, the Sheriff is responsible for the court house, trial and other justice administration duties.

Suffice it to say that the Sheriff is responsible for policing a population of less than 100,000 people. She is assisted in this duty by a State Police force with troopers located throughout the county.

The $68,000,000 budget request works out to be $600+ for each citizen (man, woman and child) living within her jurisdiction. And, remember, there is a State Police budget for this same territory, these same citizens.

Policing of the county, the municipalities could be more efficiently and just as effectively accomplished with one police department for the county. This is a proposal that will never come to pass mainly because it eliminates one or more organizational infrastructures. Much like any bureaucratic organization, the police agencies will fight any merging of their overlapping responsibilities or changes in their current territories. In our society, the people tend to side with the wishes of our policing forces. Consequently, our county citizens will continue to allow the annual spending of $100,000,000+ for its overlapping police services ...incredible.

And so the dilemma of fatalism or just having gone to hell-in-a-hand-basket remains. Little change is likely as long as we allow our divisions of government to respond to our criticisms with smoke and mirrors. Demands for efficiency in government, fairness in the distribution of the tax load and for programs, that better peoples' lives, will go unmet. Government must equitably meet constituent needs in a diverse range of people's lives. Successful government will cause some to be hopeful, hopeful that we will return from hell. Unfortunately, others will follow the path of gloom and doom, the fatalism pathway, and write-off the country's future as hopeless.

Our elected governments have the duty to corral all of us into a force that leads America back to its best ideals. We have the responsibility to move our own lives in a direction that ensures that America is the best it can be for ourselves, but most importantly, for the future of our children, our grandchildren and all of the future generations.