What happens when the ideology of "Government must be run as a business" actually is employed in a small town in Texas, by name of Alto?
Well, you end up laying off (furlough for 6 months) the entire police force because the police do not generate enough revenue. And well, you know, crime is on the rise in Alto, because there is no law enforcement. Residents of Alto, Texas, must now wait up to 15 minutesfor county sheriffs to respond to crimes (compared to 3 minutes when the police station had funding for 5 officers). And you know what? Someone has already tried to rob the town's bank since the police station was padlocked by the city council and the police cars impounded.
More after the fold.
Humanist philosophers (Locke, Hume and Roussou) often talked about the social contract; you know, citizens give up some freedom for security. This freedom loss generally is based upon conforming to laws- I give up the freedom to kill anyone I choose for the safety that everyone has also given up that freedom (thus, making me more secure, as murder is considered illegal activity for people in society). Other freedoms we give up, include paying taxes for social services, such as law enforcement, the creation and repair of roads, maintaining the court system, enforcement of deeds/ownership law, protecting copyright patents, etc. You know, all the things we take for granted about government.
Enter Conservative Ideology focusing on freedom from government tyranny. This sort of thinking occurred in the run up to the Civil War during the focus on state's rights, nullification and interposition, mostly because of landed slave owners who did not want to give up their slave labor for such higher ideals such as, say, human rights, and ending one of the most destructive practices in human history. (As a comparison, the Czar of Russia freed all the peasants before the US freed our slaves).
A few weeks ago, I attended a family reunion, where the genealogists in my extended family traced my family line to the late 1500s, but one of the more colorful members of my family was my Great Great Grandfather Jesse, who was a corporal in the Grand Army of the Republic. He was a union man, and he fought against the Confederacy (I'm from Nebraska, and our hatred of the Confederacy runs even to my childhood in the 1980s- hell, we have a memorial to Lincoln and JFK in the State Capitol Building, and our state capital was named after Abe). We had other family members who also fought in the Civil War, and were literally brothers who fought against each other in a battle late in the war. That same sort of vitriolic hatred for government nearly tore our nation apart; the traitors of the South no longer wanted to be Americans, or citizens of the United States. They hated the Stars and Stripes, and flew the Bars and Stars. The first flag is a symbol of freedom, justice and equality under the law, while the latter is the banner for hatred, slavery and white power (one of the reasons the Ku Klux Klan uses the Confederate Flag in their ceremonies and in their parades).
One of the core concepts of conservative thought in America is a hatred of the federal government, and government in general. So the likes of Grover Norquist and his powerful lobbying group have a complete stranglehold on the GOP by requiring no increase in taxes. The US is the 2nd most under-taxed nation in the West (at 27%, while Switzerland has a 20% average tax rate). In terms of corporate taxes, the US has one of the highest corporate tax rates, but in practice, 2/3 of all businesses in the US pay NO TAXES, and 90% are under-taxed.
At the state level, the hatred of Republicans/Conservatives towards government has shut down Minnesota entirely (the Republicans in Minnesota are using the state's budget crisis to push their anti-abortion ideology in the classic "hold everyone hostage") and at the federal level, the Republicans are trying to economically sabotage this nation by refusing to increase taxes for a balanced budget and to not raise the debt ceiling. This sort of hostage taking is not being villified in the press, and the Republican base cheers for this sort of traitorous economic suicide. In all seriousness, Al Qaeda only dreamed of doing the sort of damage that Republicans are willing to inflict on America (and this is the same reason the White House is seriously talking about the 14th Amendment's clause that the US Debt shall not be questioned).
At any rate, take a look at Alto, Texas, and you will see what happens when government breaks down. Of course the police department is not a "revenue generator." They are a service that the people of Alto have already paid for in taxes. The people of Alto, Texas, are being robbed by their council. This is a breakdown in the social contract. This is a Little Mogadishu in Texas, because the people in charge in Alto, Texas, have no fucking clue what government does or what good it is. This is symptomatic of the overall hatred of government in Conservative Circles. This sort of hatred led to the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. This sort of hatred led to the Civil War. This sort of hatred is destroying America.
And the traitors to America are smiling on prime time. They're being extolled for their virtues. They're getting a free pass while they are slitting all of our collective throats for their corporate backers. The dream of the conservative movement, is to turn all of America into Somalia; without government, without security, and a free for all of the "free market." Their dream is corporate anarchism, and the death of our republic.