A Lot of Things I Did Not Build On My Own

President Obama reminded us all last week that it takes a village to raise a business. "You didn't build that" became an immediate rallying cry for his opponent. The President intimated that we all need some government and there is truthiness in his tenet. Government is like salt, without it, things can go bad pretty quick; but too much ruins the whole dish.  Everyone else can argue over the recipe and how much governemnt we need or like. I would just like to go on record as admitting that there are a lot of things that I did not build.

I did not build the I-35W bridge that collapesed in Minneapolis back in 2007.
I did not build the levees in New Orleans.
I did not build the stock market bubble in the 80s.
I did not build the dot com bubble of the 90s.
I did not build the housing bubble of the 2000s.
I did not build the asset bubble that follwed.
I did not build the banks too big.
I did not build a war on drugs.
I did not build the war on the middle class.
I did not build a worhtless solar panel company just to steal tens of millions of dollars from Americans.
I did not "build" Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, or Operation Fast and Furious.
I did not build a system that tripled my health insurance premiums in 5 years while trying to save me from the doubling of my healthcare costs over 10 years.

While our President can take some time to slap Uncle Sam on the back for building our interstate highways; keep in mind those highways and bridges are 60 or 70 years old.  Many are in disrepair and unsafe--as are hundreds of the nation's levees.

President Obama menitoned the internet and how the government helped give rise to the world wide web. The internet seems new--at least to the old farts in power. Yes, the defense department, through it's advanced research projects division, encouraged and built ARPANET; which led, kind of, to today's internet. That was 40 years ago.

It should not be a crime to admit that we need each other; at least a little now and then. Even the presidential challenger, Gov. W. Mitt Romney, needs others. Heck, he needs a whole team of accountants just to do his taxes. (and another team to sit on them)  Nor does it turn a person into some right-wing zealot to point out that many times government makes things worse or creates entirely new problems when our dear uncle sees a crisis he can't let go to waste.  Take healthcare (please !), where Uncle Sam warned me that if he didn't do anything my costs would double in 10 years--which is not that far above the real inflation rate anyway.  The big health insurers "donate" their "contributions" to Congress, Congress passes a law requiring everyone to buy health insurance; and my monthly premium nearly triples in 4 years.  Thank heavens Congress saved me from 7% inflation by sucking tens of millions of dollars in bribe money form my health insurer, so my health insurer could triple my price in 4 years. 

Uncle Sam has baked up some good stuff over the years; but lately his recipes all seem a bit salty.