If only the government was satisfied with mitigating predation. Government has become the predator while at the same time being the sleeping deer hunter.
Paddy, you bemoan, at least I think you do, the national debt, the unbalanced budget, the rifling of SS by the very people who dreamed it up, who blames the other party with a straight face. (That was a good one.) The over regulation of...well...just about everything. (I'm laughing about American Airlines thumbing their nose at the goobermint.) Gee, I wonder why we have an energy independence problem in the country that is blessed with as many resources we have, both natural and mental. Could it be government regulation/obstruction?
Fahhh. Statist neo liberalism has done more to wreck our freedoms and enslave generations of poor and people of color with their "programs" than enemies foreign.
What I've never been able to figure out is why the electorate has any faith in the power/money hungry boobs they send to Washington and just about every state house. None of them can run a limited, effective government, why would anyone assume they can regulate businesses which are the lifeblood of the country. Just one example: The Democrat socialist governor of Michigan and her cronies in the state house have increased government spending by 2.5 BILLION dollars since she's been in office. Meanwhile the state has the highest unemployment in the country, lost 244,000 jobs between 1999 and 2006, increased income taxes by 11%, put a 22% surtax on business, pours money into tax funded colleges while it's graduates leave the state. While non government workers in Michigan have had their pay not equal inflation since 1999, raising by an average of 15% with inflation at 17.%. Those in the public sector in west Michigan have seen their pay raises at an average of 29% to as much as 40%.
It is a fact that government should have an eye fixed on business. The people who run businesses have proven that someone needs to keep an eye on them. But someone really ought to be asking why the major financial/business meltdowns that have occurred, are occurring and will occur are never found out till after the train wreck. We can't build the safe nuclear power plants without years and years of bureaucratic obstruction or even recycle nuclear waste (solving the disposal problem, thank you Jimmy Carter (D) Georgia) giving us reasonably priced, safe energy. But the damn fools stand around (look the other way?) claiming ignorance while the coyotes (who buy and sell them) raid the hen house.