For some years, my wife was the executive director of the Habitat for Humanity affiliate in the little county we lived in. Habitat projects involved vetting and selecting families who were committed to building their own homes with their own sweat equity (there were requirements about the work recipients needed to perform and partnering with Habitat in future builds). Volunteers at Habitat build sites were community groups, church groups, retired people, college students, and even crummy carpenters like me who give their time, talent and treasure to help others.
Government whines and talks big about the need for affordable housing for low-income individuals, but I never once saw a crew of government employees show up at a Habitat build site. Habitat in my county never received any government money. Generally, the money Habitat received from the mortgage it wrote on a house once it was finished (yes, Habitat families are expected to pay a mortgage at the end of a build) was rolled over and invested in building the next house.
Government housing projects are all about using the coercive authority of government to take money from one group of people (the $100 million you cite almost certainly came from taxes) and give it to other group(s) of people (the homeless and the contractors hired to build government housing) hoping that the theft and redistribution will make the world better.
What if we are not tax payers? If they are government workers, does that mean they are the government or they work for the government or neither or both.
They are (probably)contracted by the government, paid pennies to do the work, and the government is pocketing the rest that was allocated for the project.
The functional priority of the Government is to survive and grow larger. YOUR survival is not necessary for the successful attainment of the Governments Functional Priority.
So if we pay there salaries they work for us who is the government? So if we are us and we complain about the government we are complaining about ourselves. We are our own worst enemy. That makes sense.
âGovernmentâ is comprised of those individuals who either work for government as some sort of employee, or elected officials who enact laws and lead government agencies. Those elected officials are individuals who got off their respective couches, endured the pain of running for office, and developed a winning campaign to capture the majority of votes cast by the electorate who bother to vote.
Government employees and elected officials do not work for the governed, nor serve the governed since the governed include the many who do not (or cannot) vote, such as future generations or individuals too young to vote but who are nevertheless âgovernedâ by government or will be liable for paying for government operations.
Government is the institution that has the legal authority to compel individuals to do what government believes is best for society. Government does not exist to serve the governed but exists to manage and control the behavior of the governed and compel the governed to donate to the expenses of government (i.e. taxes).
The governed and government are two very different things.
A small subset of the governed elect government officials who lead government which, in turn, imposes its will on the entire collection of governed individuals â people who vote, people who did not or could not vote and those who did not vote for the elected officials who comprise âgovernment.â
A tiny minority of the governed actually participate in things like primaries where candidates are vetted and selected in many areas. Even fewer folks vote in local elections where local government choices are made.
Imagine this claim ⊠âYou have to do what I say â and I am empowered to put you in jail if you donât â because I was elected by the majority of the 9% of the electorate who bothered to vote in the primary that nominated me. You are the governed. I am the government.â
I used to hate to read âThe city plans a new effort to help the downtown merchants,â My reply was always âJust leave us alone. We can figure it out.â
Every time the city âhelpedâ us it wound up costing me more in lost sales than if I had ordered the work done myself for in front of my place of business. An acquaintance from downtown, a 20 year retiree from the Navy Civil Engineer Corps pointed out to the city project manager that if the construction continued as outlined the building on the corner was going to get flooded every time it rained. The city a.h. told him, âWe know what we are doing.â Guess what. Every time it rained the building on the corner got flooded. I donât have any engineering expertise but even I could see that the way the project was sloped the building would get flooded â that is, unless certain rules were changed and water flowed uphill. That water always flowed downhill had nothing to do with advanced engineering. It just happened that way.It just astounded me that someone who purportedly had studied civil engineering would approve a plan that clearly sloped right to the front door of that building and not see that all the water that gathered on the street in even the lightest rain would flow right to that point. The bank there kept sandbags by the front door and put them out any time there was a mention of possible rain.
.Gov âExpertsâ
I know Brother, we told/Suggested to the Engineers NOT to
put the Water Tower by the Hanger (where the Troopers slept).
They replied âI KNOW!â but the âGâ wanted it there because it makes sense Our Commander said âBSâ and moved the guyâs further
away from the Tower because it was a TARGET!
Military Intelligence (obviously an Oxy-moronic group) said they couldnât lock on
to the Tower becauseâŠwait for itâŠâIT WAS FILLED WITH WATER!â YUP.
(shaking my head also) Project completed, lines running to the shower, mess hall etc
My General said âHold the Phoneâ We have âFriendliesâ Local Contractors
swarm all over the Base, Seeing a lot, lets change out everything once they are gone.
It took (24) hours to relocate and in (48) we had our first Mortar Attack. (300) guys would have died, they hit the Hanger (now empty), the Mess Hall andâŠyou guessed it the Water Tower! Glad they couldnât Lock On âcause of the Waterâ âŠGeniuses!
After the twenty mortars hit my Brother looked @ me (a little wild eyed) and said âThat Sucked!â I almost Peeâd! (Mortars make this sucking sound, like youâre hawking up a
âLungyâ ) Grunts looked @ us like the two of us were nuts! Seconds after what could have been a deadly attack and here we are rolling against the sandbags laughing our ba**s off!. The General thought it was GREAT! A Moral Booster! Nothing could phase these two (he said!) We were his favorites after that. Itâs good to be the King!
TWO times I almost die on an air field and what do I do? Get a Part time job @ an Airport⊠You canât fixâŠoh nevamind.
Our Commander said âBSâ and moved the guyâs further