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Are we honestly expected to believe that a first world nation's family can't find room in the budget to give their own children vegetables and prepare food for

by jkn 14y ago

Are we honestly expected to believe that a first world nation's family can't find room in the budget to give their own children vegetables and prepare food for them ? Well yes, it is sad but true that a first world country, in spite of its wealth, can be home to very poor families. Of course bad nutrition is also a cultural problem, there are many parents that could do a better job at feeding their children. But how would you address this cultural issue without some kind of government intervention? Doing nothing but blaming the parents doesn't help much. No one is denying the right of parents to provide food for their children. But when, as an option, food is provided by the state (such as in state schools), it should be a priority to get the menus right. To answer your question, I don't think there is any private matter that is completely beyond the scope of government. What is more private than our sexual lives? Yet I'm happy that the government runs information campaigns on STD prevention. On the other hand, I do think that coercive powers should be severely restricted.

ekianjo 14y ago
"But how would you address this cultural issue without some kind of government intervention? Doing nothing but blaming the parents doesn't help much." I don't understand why whenever this is an issue in society, it becomes something that the government has to go and fix. In the not so distant past, (let's say, at least up until the early 1950s), a number of problems were adressed by private (as in, non-governmental) initiatives (from profit and non-profit organizations, or simply community, family support). Now, we expect government to take care of everything. There seems to be no space for other solutions. Private initiatives seem to have completely disappeared from most people's mindset. This kind of mindset is even pervasive in the economical system where many people now believe it is the role of Government to "stimulate" the Economy. As if, the Economy was a "by-product" of government intervention! I DO think there are clear limits between government scope and private scope, and in most modern countries this is something that the Constitution usually clarifies. You find that such limits are usually lacking in countries which tend to turn to despotism and dictatorship. When you break these boundaries, you end up (after a while, step by step...) with governments suppressing freedom of speech and telling people how they have to think. That is exactly why there are several Privacy Advocate groups which pay a lot of attention to this kind of issues.
- jkn 14y ago
  Ah good point. Indeed much of what the government does could be accomplished by private groups. So why should the government get involved? Let's look at the case of school meals. Many parents want them but it's not provided by the state school, so parents will team up to make it happen privately. This means negotiating with the school for access to a building on the premises, forming a committee to organize the whole thing (so having elections at periodic intervals to appoint the committee), hiring cooks, cleaners, security, etc., setting up a system for collecting money from parents, and finally establishing a process for decisions such as what to put on the menu. We basically end up with a small task-specific government with its own laws (such as how decisions are made and how people are elected to the committee). So not only is it redundant with other local (e.g. city) governments, it also increases the complexity of everyone's life dramatically, as you have to deal with the public government plus all the private organizations, each with their own quirks. This is why I view politics as a generic platform for debate on societal issues, and government as a framework for taking and implementing decisions. For this to be efficient it is important to have strong local governments at several levels (e.g. city, state, country) and choose wisely their respective prerogatives, such as city level for school meals, state level for school programs and country level for school certification. That does not mean there is no room for private initiatives, it just illustrates why government involvement could be a good option, sometimes. As for the Constitution stuff, there's no question that a government should be monitored carefully and have limited powers (e.g. cannot force children to eat school meals), but this is different from saying it cannot offer school meals.

by jkn 14y ago

ekianjo 14y ago

"But how would you address this cultural issue without some kind of government intervention? Doing nothing but blaming the parents doesn't help much." I don't understand why whenever this is an issue in society, it becomes something that the government has to go and fix. In the not so distant past, (let's say, at least up until the early 1950s), a number of problems were adressed by private (as in, non-governmental) initiatives (from profit and non-profit organizations, or simply community, family support). Now, we expect government to take care of everything. There seems to be no space for other solutions. Private initiatives seem to have completely disappeared from most people's mindset. This kind of mindset is even pervasive in the economical system where many people now believe it is the role of Government to "stimulate" the Economy. As if, the Economy was a "by-product" of government intervention! I DO think there are clear limits between government scope and private scope, and in most modern countries this is something that the Constitution usually clarifies. You find that such limits are usually lacking in countries which tend to turn to despotism and dictatorship. When you break these boundaries, you end up (after a while, step by step...) with governments suppressing freedom of speech and telling people how they have to think. That is exactly why there are several Privacy Advocate groups which pay a lot of attention to this kind of issues.

jkn 14y ago
Ah good point. Indeed much of what the government does could be accomplished by private groups. So why should the government get involved? Let's look at the case of school meals. Many parents want them but it's not provided by the state school, so parents will team up to make it happen privately. This means negotiating with the school for access to a building on the premises, forming a committee to organize the whole thing (so having elections at periodic intervals to appoint the committee), hiring cooks, cleaners, security, etc., setting up a system for collecting money from parents, and finally establishing a process for decisions such as what to put on the menu. We basically end up with a small task-specific government with its own laws (such as how decisions are made and how people are elected to the committee). So not only is it redundant with other local (e.g. city) governments, it also increases the complexity of everyone's life dramatically, as you have to deal with the public government plus all the private organizations, each with their own quirks. This is why I view politics as a generic platform for debate on societal issues, and government as a framework for taking and implementing decisions. For this to be efficient it is important to have strong local governments at several levels (e.g. city, state, country) and choose wisely their respective prerogatives, such as city level for school meals, state level for school programs and country level for school certification. That does not mean there is no room for private initiatives, it just illustrates why government involvement could be a good option, sometimes. As for the Constitution stuff, there's no question that a government should be monitored carefully and have limited powers (e.g. cannot force children to eat school meals), but this is different from saying it cannot offer school meals.