“The best government is that which governs least,” goes the old saying. And if ever there were evidence for this proposition, it’s our federal government’s efforts at creating infrastructure. In fact, I built more as a child playing with Lincoln Logs and LEGO blocks than the feds do via some of its billion-dollar projects.
Consider, for example, a plan the government hatched three years ago to lay thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable. Costing $65 billion, this effort’s goal was to bring high-speed internet to all of America. (So everyone can watch online porn.) And how many are connected today, three years later?
Zero.
In fact, “Not a single project is underway,” relates investigative journalist John Stossel in a new video report.
Government Mainly Builds Debt and Walls of Regulation
How is this possible? “Because governments aren’t good at building anything,” Stossel explains. “As Milton Friedman put it: ‘Very few people spend other people’s money as carefully as they spend their own.’ Politicians, spending other people’s money, wasted it.”
“Private companies laid miles of cable, while government officials obsessed about giving broadband to the right people,” Stossel continued. “Boys, girls, people of color, people living in rural America,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is heard saying in the video. Stossel then added, “Aging individuals, prisoners, LGBTQ persons. Any company that wants funds to build broadband has to hire certain people.”
In other words, the government said it wanted to provide high-speed internet. But it was more interested in effecting social engineering, through discrimination, and appeasing special-interest groups.
This is nothing new, either. The late Professor Walter E. Williams pointed out years ago that the state has always been the most egregious group-discrimination offender. Eighty years back the government discriminated against blacks and other minorities. In contrast, the private sector would far more readily hire from such groups. Now the government discriminates against white males and in favor of blacks and other minorities. The one constant?
Engaging in unjust discrimination can cost private-sector businesses money. They may be sacrificing lower-cost and/or higher-skilled employees when not hiring based on economic imperatives.
Government pays no price for discriminating. Public officials get the same salary regardless.
A Day Late and a Dollar Short — After Spending Billions
Speaking of how a lack of accountability breeds social-engineering frivolity (and iniquity), woke discrimination is just the beginning. Businesses must also embrace all the “right” causes — e.g., climate change, censorship — to land government contracts. “You have all these companies that could actually do this [the job],” Strive Asset Management’s Matt Cole is heard stating in the video. But “they say, ‘This is unimplementable with the restrictions.’ So, they just walk away.”
Of course, “Eventually, government will probably succeed at installing some broadband,” Stossel adds. “But by then, this hard-to-install cable may be totally unnecessary because of satellite internet, like Starlink. Starlink already exists and costs much less.”
“They could do it literally today,” Cole says in response to the above. “You could have devices in these people’s homes within the next couple months, and they can have high-speed internet access.”
Attesting to this on X under Stossel’s report is user “Tim.” “I’ve waited for well over a decade for high-speed internet at home,” he said. “Starlink finally offered a real solution.” Now, he says, it’s “too late” for cable services to capture his business.
So why didn’t Biden administration officials embrace Starlink? First they claimed it hadn’t demonstrated the necessary ability. Then, when this was proven false, the administration asserted they were rejecting the company because it was monopolistic. (By the way, isn’t the federal government a sort of monopoly?) But what’s the real reason?
“They don’t want to give money to Elon Musk,” says Stossel.
Changing the President, Changing the Pattern
But now that will change with President Trump preparing to retake power, as he and Musk are friends. But while Musk may have good intentions, having government choose winners and losers isn’t good in principle, points out Stossel.
Consider, too, how bad this phenomenon has become. Musk said prior to the election that if Kamala Harris and the Democrats won, he’d be finished. He was talking about how their efforts to destroy his businesses, all because they dislike his politics, would intensify. Is this the American way, having government target companies that don’t kowtow to the regime’s agenda?
This is, in fact, actual fascism (not government ownership, but control, of the “private” sector) — the very thing our leftists continually accuse their opponents of embodying.
Government Is Batting Zero
Unfortunately, too, government boondoggles go far beyond fiber-optic cable fiascoes. As Stossel also reported (all quotations are from other individuals):
In fact, politicians have a bad track record when they decide what to build. They pumped billions into high-speed rail; 15 years later, we still don’t have it. They lost $500 million on Solyndra. Almost a billion trying to create synthetic fuels. More recently, a Biden meatpacking scheme starved a million chickens. And although Biden promised government would build “500,000 charging stations,” two years later, how many have they built for $7 billion? Seven.
And again, government’s failure at building things is not just a Democrat thing; Republicans joined Democrats in grabbing your money to build computer chip factories. … Democrats bragged about adding strings: “Diversity, equity and inclusion!” “The Chips Act contains 19 sections aimed at helping minority groups.”
Weighing in again, Cole explained the problems this social engineering causes. “You already have a talent problem,” he said. “Now, you’re looking at only being able to recruit from a very small minority of individuals. Then you have to do climate pledges. Then you have to hire from unions.” Then you’re out of business — that is, unless you’re the government.
For then you can simply raises taxes, print more money, and run deficits till the cows come home.
Physician, Heal Thyself
The kicker is that our government, which purports to be able to bring technology to all and sundry and play private-sector puppeteer, cannot even keep its own technological house in order. In fact, it spends hundreds of millions of dollars yearly maintaining outdated/obsolete IT systems (tweet below).
What’s more, Musk claims that this lacking software is a reason why the feds don’t even know where many of the billions it spends have gone.
There is good news, though, given that the government also stifles freedom via onerous laws, regulations, and mandates. Every dollar the feds waste is one less dollar they have available to oppress us with.
Stossel’s report is below.
