The Problem With Government

So I've been ripping Obama for trying to use Keynesian measures to help us get out of this recession. The problem for me is that government spending will lead to government reliance. You don't have to look far to see the potential problem that may develop. Greece continues to have trouble getting their citizens off the government's teat:

But others entertain strong doubts about the willingness and ability of the Greek political class to implement the structural measures that will improve the performance of the Greek economy. "The present government has done absolutely nothing during the last 12 months to speed up privatizations, reduce the public sector or open up closed professions," Athanasios Papandropoulos, a leading economic analyst, told me recently in an interview. "In these 12 months it has not fired even one civil servant. The only thing it is doing is trying to tax the private sector out of existence. Why should we believe that they will do something different now?"

Government reliance has changed the expectancy of the citizens. They don't believe the government is going to change:

Structural reforms have been repeatedly announced by Greek officials during the past. Yet nothing has happened. Greece's plans tend to resemble Soviet Five Year Plans: They look good on paper but have absolutely no bearing on reality. Anyone in the government who tries to point this out is forced to resign. Economist Stella Balfousia, the head of the Greek Parliament budget office, had to tender her resignation after her office published a report contradicting the government's official forecasts on debt and deficit.

While I don't think the US is going to be Greece, I do think we need to limit the influence of the public sector. There are many roles the public sector can play, but being the primary provider of jobs is not one of them. That should be left to the private sector. This is why I've had such a problem with the plans that Obama has put out there. I don't want to see US start to stutter; I want to see the US continue to grow.