Does Big Government Need to Help Us Do Everything

 California, Missouri

The 11/01/23 California Democrat article on updating California’s wastewater plant was interesting. The article mentions that the city has received a $20 million grant from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources; I suspect that a substantial portion of that money was funded by the $2 trillion dollar 2023 federal deficit, more debt and higher interest payments piled on the shoulders of all future generations.

I live in rural Cole County, why are my tax dollars funding improvements to the California water and sewer systems? If I built a home in a rural area I would be expected to pay the cost of installing and maintaining my utilities; water, sewer, electricity, etc. Should several households choose to band together and build, as part of a homeowners association, part of their investment would fund  providing utilities for the group of homes. Supposedly there would be some “economies of scale”; the cost of utilities allocated to each homeowner would be less than it would for a single homeowner.

If my well or septic system goes bad I would not expect the federal government to force others to subsidize repairs. If new applicants want to join a homeowners association, requiring expansion of existing utilities, the new residents would be expected bear the cost of the needed improvements. Why can’t those who are serviced by the California water and wastewater systems pay to operate them? Would it have been less expensive for each California household if each of them furnished and maintained their own, individual water and sewer systems?

What is wrong with us, as individuals or communities paying our own way? The other alternative is that we allow Sugar Daddy big government to subsidize our wants/needs and fund those subsidies by piling more debt, and massive annual interest payments on all future generations.

It is not my intention to single out California; this is just one example of runaway government intrusion. Rather than expecting people and communities to be responsible and provide for themselves, Sugar Daddy politicians are always there to buy votes by piling more debt on future generations.

While Bidenomics did decrease federal receipts by $500 billion from 2022 to 2023 they were still the 2nd highest amount of taxes ever extracted from our economy, and we still had a $1.7 trillion deficit.

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