Every time I hear conservatives and libertarians trot out the argument that government doesn't work, can't work, or that "government is the problem", I am compelled to trot out all the examples to the contrary.

Government worked well when deregulating, by removing the barriers between commercial and investment banking. It also worked well when regulating, when it passed laws like the DMCA to protect Hollywood from competition and changing markets. It worked well when making bankruptcies more difficult for people to qualify for in order to protect the profits of the big finance. It worked well when it engaged in closed-door meetings with the petrochemical industry to forge energy policy. It worked well when it offered boatloads of no-bid contracts to crony defense contractors. And it worked well when it cut taxes for the highest incomes.

I could go on. But by now, you should be getting the point: Government is quite effective - for those for whom it works. But those for whom government works, and has been working, do not include most Americans. They don't include workers, or even the middle class. They don't include those in poverty. Once in power, they claim that government doesn't work, but they only prove that it doesn't work for us; only for them.

The problem is not that government is ineffective. it's that it's ineffective for the people it is intended to represent. Our task, then, is not just to make government more efficient, or more effective, but to make it work for the most people, and not just those in power or with wealth or influence.

Comments –Nato