We've had about all the "big thinking" we can handle for the day, thanks. (UPDATED)

As we noted previously, its heady days for the big government set who have busted their shovels out of storage and are gleefully tossing dirt on “free market’s” grave in one big ol’ “told you so” moment. Of course, these people are full of crap as there was nothing “free market” about Congress purposely trying to manipulate the housing market for their desired results.

But beyond the obvious, we’ve noted a tone of wonderment and awe when people like Rosa Brooks write here about the redeeming and cleansing powers of government and the salvation afforded to all us little people by the state from the battering and bruising of the “free market”.

Are government programs needed? Absolutely. That whole interstate system was/is a great idea… makes road-trips a heckuva lot easier but we like the interstate highway system and government involvement in the same for strictly utilitarian purposes.

Because of this we never understood this juvenile fascination that some people have with “Government” as some sort of overarching national psychological healer. These people get glassy-eyed talking about the good ol’ days of the Great Depression and FDR’s programs that did not do one damn thing to actually lift us out of the Depression. Sorry, we just don’t get it. Oh, that’s right… he had to do “something”. Sound familiar?

And forgive us the shakes when people like Parks want Government to “think Big”. Some of the greatest atrocities, no, the greatest atrocities ever committed against mankind have occurred when people or individual men have affected sweeping change through the Government by “thinking Big”. The Final Solution, The Great Leap Forward…. Burning Food…

Are we making an equivalency between Mao and current big government-philes like Parks? No. But by the same token we are not letting big government types off the hook for failing to explain how it is we are going to pay for all this big thinking, especially in light of the crushing un-funded liabilities facing future generations that are now on the not-too-distant horizon because of previous well-intended bouts of “thinking big”.

$300 million for mortgage assistance, Fannie, Freddie, Bear-Stearns, AIG and now the $700 billion “we voted against it before we voted for it” financial market bailout. We haven’t seen this much “thinking Big” in our entire life.

So just tack all that on to…

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Universal health care… who is going to pay for all this? And once we figure out who’s getting stuck the bill… how? Now, that would be thinking Big.

(UPDATE #1): In the article, Brooks smugly asks: And hasn't this week made you glad the GOP didn't succeed in privatizing Social Security? (Isn't it ironic the woman recoils from the same outside-the-box thinking she appears to be advocating) The woman intimates the lies that scared off many voters in the first place regarding privitization. First off, the privitization plan would only be for a portion of one’s Social Security account. We’ve forgot the exact percentage but we believe no more than half of your account could be privitized. Secondly, and most importantly, the decision to privitize your account would be entirely voluntary…. 100% your decision.

We continue to be amazed by people like Parks who will tell you they are for individual choice and for the “little guy’s” ability to get ahead by his/her own wits and hard work and then, at every turn, deny the same means to be able to do so.

And to answer her question: No, we’re not glad the GOP didn’t succeed in privitizing a portion of our account at our discretion. In fact, we wish we could opt out of the whole thing altogether. The money we have amassed to date in our account, we’d gladly have it payed forward to impending retirees, or better, commit to our nieces and nephews’ accounts in return for not having the 6% tax taken out of our paycheck and our employer not having to pay the 6% tax on our name in way of payroll tax.

For those of you 40-45 and under who think you are going to see all of that money that the SSA says you will on that account statement that gets delivered every 6 months, you are completelty delusional.

Its time this decrepit Depression-era dinosaur gets a serious make-over or taken out at the knees altogether.