The Nanny State

Yet another problem with it.

The problem with nanny state governance isn’t just that it’s intrusive. It isn’t just that it stifles business with over-regulation, and it isn’t just that it empowers busybodies and costs money. It’s that it distracts government from the really big jobs that it ought to be doing.

Mayor Bloomberg has done an admirable job under great pressure as the city reels from Sandy’s attack. But an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure. The city needed flood protection for its subways and electricity grid—and it didn’t get it. If the Mayor had spent less time and less of his political capital focusing on minutiae, this storm could have played out very differently.

And the problem with big federal government is that it spends too many resources that aren’t its business, and it resultingly neglects the things that are.

6 thoughts on “The Nanny State”

  1. The city needed flood protection for its subways and electricity grid…

    Bloomberg was trying to stop flooding at the source: 24oz. soda cups.

  2. Well the obvious answer is to swell the ranks of government regulators so that we can pay attention to both infrastructure and the citizen’s personal choices. There are few problems that cannot be solved with more regulators and administrators.

    -This message brought to you from the Office of the Assistant to the Under Secretary of Government-Citizen Messaging.

  3. If the Mayor had spent less time and less of his political capital focusing on minutiae

    Translation: if he’d spent more effort doing mayor stuff like running city government and less courting media attention running for National School Nurse.

  4. I doubt Bloomberg would have been working on flood protection for the subway if he wasn’t banning salt and soda.

Comments are closed.