The Wagon Analogy

Well, it looks like I lost another friend... not like R.I.P or anything, but my Facebook muck-racking has another casualty. My intention has never been to hound people and beat them into submission, but merely to prove that we all can agree. There is Truth out there, and we CAN find it. Our problems arise from our willingness to believe convenient falsehoods in order to make our lives more comfortable. In this case, it was the falsehood that has been propagated for YEARS that government employees, including teachers, firemen, police, etc, are taxpayers just like the rest of us. They are not. I don't want them to feel bad about it... the ones doing a good job should feel GOOD about it. I, and all other producers of wealth, pay them gladly and appreciate their work. But the VERY SECOND they begin to believe that they are somehow superior and a class above us mere citizens, the deal is off. We can no longer appreciate them. One way they have been led to believe that is by encouraging them to believe they are taxpayers like the rest of us. They are not, and it obscures the special relationship we SHOULD have with them: we are the employers and they are the employees. 

Let's take a County Employee, for instance. Say he makes $80k per year. Like most of us, he pays county sales and use taxes, and property taxes. But his paycheck comes from the county, too. So, why don't they just pay him less, by the sum of all the taxes he would otherwise pay? Or pay him less but give him an exemption card to show that his taxes have already been deducted from his pay? If his property taxes, sales and use taxes, etc, adds up to, say, $15k, why don't they pay him $65k and call it quits. It's the SAME THING. The end result is that he really makes $65k because the VERY SAME entity that pays him took some back. The same goes for Postal Workers, DMV workers, Military servicemen, Firemen, Congressmen, Senators, dogcatchers, social workers, Mayors, etc. And what I just described is not really feasible, but it should suffice to prove that they are not really "taxpayers" like the rest of us.

The analogy I used was only partially developed. I guess I should try to flesh it out a bit: Imagine a wagon train of pioneers trekking across the prairie. It has been a long and arduous journey, and all the horses but one have died and so most are walking and carrying their stuff. There are hunters, cooks, wheelwrights, farriers, cobblers, seamstresses, doctors, blacksmiths, map readers, children, soldiers, carpenters, etc. But only one wagon and one horse. At first, say, just the children are in the wagon along with the supplies/food. After a while, the doctor says, "Y'know, if I get any more blisters I will be unable to treat anyone else's blisters and we'll have to stop and the Indians will come and we'll all die." And so the doctor gets in the wagon. A little while later, the cook says, "Y'know, If I get in the wagon I could be preparing meals while we travel and we wouldn't have to stop for so long and everything would be more efficient." And so the cook gets in the wagon. A while later, the map reader says, "Y'know, without me, you all would be lost. My freaking feet hurt. I'm getting in the wagon!" And everyone else grudgingly allows it. Then, the carpenter says, "Well, without me, what are you gonna do if the wagon breaks?" And he promptly climbs in the wagon. Suddenly, they notice that the horse is breathing hard and struggling. A few of the guys still walking decide to help the horse and start pushing the wagon. After a while, the farrier says, "Man... my wrist hurts from all this pushing. If I injure my wrist, I won't be able to fix the horseshoes." And so it is decided that the farrier doesn't have to push. The hunters come to the same conclusion. Soon, the blacksmith pipes up with, "Y'know, since there are plenty of people pushing, I need to put my hammer and bellows in the wagon so I don't get too tired from carrying them." At some point, the seamstresses say, "Y'know, since we are going downhill, can we get in the wagon? We aren't really made for all this pushing anyway." And on it goes.

Okay... at some point, more than half of the pioneers end up in the wagon... or at least not pushing. Soon thereafter, a brilliant idea forms among the party. It began with the map reader who suggested that if the pushers pushed harder, they might reach a certain lake before nightfall and everyone would have fresh fish to eat and clean water. This sounded good to the pushers, but they were pretty tired already and unsure of themselves. One of them said, "Hey! We have to do all this extra work to get fresh fish and water... but you don't have to do anything extra?" So the map reader says, "Well, ok... let's VOTE on it!" And of course, since more than half of the people were in the wagon, the pushers had to push harder. A few days later, one of the cobblers sons said, "Hey everybody! Look at that guy! He's not really pushing, he's just kinda walking beside the wagon!" And so, a new idea was floated. "Why don't we have the children stationed around the outside of the wagon to keep an eye on the pushers so that doesn't happen again?"

As you can imagine... after a few weeks of this, the pushers ought to be getting a bit perturbed. "Look, I don't mind pushing the children, the cook, the doctor, and the map reader. It has to be done. I understand that. I do it gladly. But having the farriers sons whipping us to make us push harder, and the fact that the horse died a long time ago and we don't even NEED a Farrier anymore, and that ominous mountain range up ahead has us a little concerned!" At that, the carpenters nephew says, "Need we remind you that we voted last week that you guys can just SHUT UP AND PUSH!"

And so, the relevant question should be, are the people in the wagon helping the wagon get anywhere? Maybe a better question is, does the wagon get from point A to point B by the direct effort of the pushers, or by the effort of the riders? And the answer MUST BE that the riders are only indirectly, and secondarily, helping. They DO HELP, but only indirectly. The wagon would still get there without them.

  The ugly truth we all need to confront is that this country is at a tipping point. And since all I am qualified to do is shut up and push, it is up to you people in the wagon to kick out everyone that doesn't need to be in there, and tighten up your game, and at the very least, get out and walk! Or else, the pushers might decide that they don't need you and just walk away, like Ayn Rand wrote about. This problem was not caused by the pushers. It was caused by too many people in the wagon with blinders on, allowing them to think they were somehow pulling their own weight. That is the truth. And if I have to lose friends over it, so be it.

"The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth." - H.L. Mencken

http://fabiusmaximus.com/2010/03/05/workers/