ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 1996 TAG: 9607020021
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID A. AND PEGGY L. DEWOLF
THOMAS KRATMAN'S June 1 letter to the editor ("How much more joy in government can citizens stand?") is a well-stated challenge to those who believe in a role for government, and therefore a welcome change from numerous shorter letters by writers who express the usual politically right-of-center platitudes about government, taxes and "liberals.''
While we agree with Kratman that there are avoidable excesses in government expenditures, we take issue with the implication that government is only a burden upon the citizenry. In fact, nobody disputes the need for roads, police, firemen, a national defense, coast guard and a legal system including judges and correction facilities. All these must be managed by public institutions, and no civilized nation can do without them.
The issue that seems to divide us is society's collective need and responsibility for a number of other financial burdens: education, medical care and welfare programs.
We do not believe the growing weight of government and its excesses are the root causes of the increasing discontent expressed by the political right, as represented by presently dominant powers in the Republican Party. We suspect the real motivation is a typical human reaction to adversity: to complain when the burdens of our lives become heavier.
There has been a large loss of well-paying jobs in the United States due primarily to the increased cost of natural resources (energy, metals, etc.), growing competition from the Third World, and automation and technology. These have gone hand-in-hand with a perceived (and perhaps real) decay in the work ethic and public morality. It's unclear that there's a link. The perceived decay may be due to different causes, only one of which is the wide availability of new communications media opening up previously closed communities to new outside influences.
These changes, however, do not alter the real need for education, medical care and welfare programs. There even may be more need, but there certainly is less money around to pay for them. Hence, the perception changes because we need somehow to justify our dissatisfaction with a harder life. Nor are we alone.
Many Western European countries have given these three societal issues much higher priority than the United States, and their populations are beginning to revolt against what is perceived to be an excessive tax burden. But they remain far ahead of us in providing equitably for the poor, managing health costs without bankrupting individuals whose needs are much greater than the average, and educating a cadre of technically and otherwise literate future leaders.
We don't believe that education, medical care and welfare can be left entirely to the private sector. Whenever large population groups try this, it seems too many people are left out. The "success" of supply-side economics during the Reagan years was at the cost of a hugely increased national debt that our children will have to face. Borrowing from our children is even more unfair when there are fewer younger and more older people!
The hard fact is that, with an aging population, the sharing of resources on a more equitable basis and the increased application of technology and automation will of necessity impose a heavier financial burden on those who produce the revenues - be they private or public.
The dwelling on excesses seems more of a psychological than a real, primary issue. The fall of the Weimar Republic in 1933 to the National Socialists of Adolf Hitler in Germany, while due to very different causes, contains a lesson for us: A morally repulsive faction came to power by an excessive dwelling on the failure of a democratic government to be ideal. It seemed to disturb relatively few Germans at that time that the wholesale suppression or eradication of ethnic segments of the population was widely advocated.
In short, the "tax revolt" and the dwelling upon the excesses of government are simply not rational, but are more likely an understandable and even universal human reaction to greater difficulties ahead. We must be prepared to overcome feelings of dissatisfaction and to deal with a more complex world. Reversion to isolationism in society and backing off from legitimate roles for government institutions won't help in solving the more complex problems we face today.
David A. and Peggy L. deWolf live in Blacksburg.
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