SEBELIUS' FOLLY
CityLife editor explains all the joyful things we get because we pay taxes
BY DOUG FRENCH

Doug French, associate editor of Liberty Watch: The Magazine is an executive vice president of a Nevada bank. He is the 2005 recipient of the Murray N. Rothbard Award from the Center for Libertarian Studies. Other stories by Doug French

On the eve of tax day this year, CityLife Editor Steve Sebelius penned a piece for the free weekly explaining all the great things we get because we pay taxes. The CityLife staff attempts week after week to indoctrinate its (thought-to-be) young audience into worshiping big government. If government just had more of its citizens� money to do good things with, all the world�s problems would be cured, according to CityLife. Liberty Watch readers know better. 

Sebelius� tax story chronicles a typical day, pointing out the numerous government services we all use. And because we all use these services, whether wanted or not, we should all happily pay taxes, shut up and thank our lucky stars for the benevolent bureaucrats and gifted politicians who make our wonderful world possible. CityLife�s head honcho implies that these services could not or would not be provided by the private sector. Which is nonsense. 

Sebelius� logic falls apart as quickly as he begins. It is not government regulation that makes your alarm clock go off, or the water in your shower come on. He also argues that our homes would �come crumbling down one day,� if not for government building inspectors. If that�s the case, then why can�t homeowners look to the municipalities to fix their homes rather than suing builders for construction defects? 

Next, the CL editor takes us on the road. And according to him, thanks to government mandates, our cars all get good gas mileage and pollute less. Really? Technology had nothing to do with it? By the way, cars and industry in communist countries are the worst polluters.

Sebelius then contends that the �roads you drive on come courtesy of taxes that you pay at the pump.� That will come as a big surprise to developers who put in (and finance) the streets when they build a development. Highways are paid for with tax money, but why? It only ensures that they are overused and ill-maintained. 

Sebelius claims these same developers would construct projects too close to your house if the local enlightened planning departments didn�t impose zoning laws, which make for better neighborhoods. Now, city planners are embracing smart growth, wanting us all to live in tiny apartments atop commercial developments so we can supposedly save the planet. Reality check: Zoning laws only make for richer developers and more powerful local governments, not better neighborhoods. 

Once Sebelius gets us to work, he thanks government for ensuring that everyone makes $6.15 per hour, but he doesn�t mention those low-skilled workers who are laid off because the government�s wage floor is too high. And, something tells me, Mr. Sebelius would cite the 1st Amendment as his defense if he were accused of sexual harassment. 

Continuing on, he extols the virtues of public schools. Thanks to this wonderful system, kids go on to make money and pay taxes. I wonder if kids who are home-schooled or who attend private schools have any chance to attend college and receive good jobs?

Later, Sebelius reaches out to ex-CityLife Editor Hugh Jackson for collaborating quotes. Jackson believes big government is needed to watch big business. But, as Gabriel Kolko�s The Triumph of Conservatism explains, big business and big government are partners: They love and feed each other. 

�It�s not like the private sector has the market on honesty, morality and efficiency,� says Jackson. That, of course, is true. But, unlike the government, the private sector must operate in a market. And the firms and individuals who operate in the private sector are punished for dishonesty, immorality and especially for inefficiency. Governments have no competition, allowing government employees and politicians to be dishonest, immoral and inefficient with impunity. 

Why hasn�t UMC been shut down? Why is the failing Clark County School District still the virtual monopoly provider of schooling? Why is NDOT still on the job providing clogged highways? 

It is simply because we are forced to pay the taxes that ensures government�s existence despite its incompetence.