Island Voices
Let's privatize government

By Kathy Harter
Honolulu resident

On television recently I saw a show about how community efforts succeeded where government failed, how when communities band together they prove things can and do work because of the simple premise: They want it to work. Government fails because it's a monopoly.

Government is necessary for things like keeping planes in the air. The government sees to it that our air traffic controllers have everything they need, all for our safety. Outdated equipment, you say? When did that happen?

Well, then, we need the government to keep the air clean. After all, everyone has to breathe. So why was L.A. air called smog? This was before Houston and Chicago and Detroit jumped in with their own government-regulated air-quality problems.

There was rioting in the streets because apparently the government was not doing well by some of its people. Poor people, mainly, and minorities. And then there was the LAPD — government workers and all — who pounded Rodney King in a city where every other person wants to be a movie director.

Then I moved to Hawai'i. Everything's better here, right? Well, yeah, it is. Except the government.

The Legislature is paralyzed about passing meaningful legislation and instead squabbles like children with one piece of candy. The Felix decree is costing us hundreds of millions in tax dollars because the government refused to help one student, and nearly a decade later, it still hasn't a clue.

The current civil service system is outdated and expensive, but the unions are unwilling to risk the body blows to regenerate it. Most legislators are terrified of unions because that's where much of their re-election support comes from.

Almost every day a story appears where government has failed in its duty either from incompetence or fraud or the best excuse ever: It's always been done that way. And it always costs us more money, usually lots more money. Things get done, sure, but at what inflated cost?

Then I had a thought: What if we just got rid of government? I don't mean get rid of rules and laws and civility. Replace the government with privatization, or community groups, make service to the community mandatory, not by government regulation but by consensus.

Government fails because as a monopoly there is no accountability. It can expand at will, because it says so. If communities took over, and if they were to succeed, someone would have to be held accountable.

And that is the key. According to the program, where communities took over and worked hard, with a clear concept, they succeeded. Would it work on a large scale? Isn't government really just the community, empowered by the citizens? Then why do so many government programs fail?

Because to paraphrase Pogo, what's really wrong with government today is us. We are the community groups and lobbyists with a narrow agenda. We are citizens who don't bother to vote, which takes only a few minutes, let alone get involved in the process.

As carpenters say, measure twice, cut once. Too many people neither measure nor cut, but instead hand it over to someone who agrees to do it, without even bothering to check if they're qualified — or what special interest they belong to.

Fixing government would take a huge effort by a lot of people working together. It would require accountability in our leaders and in all of us. Campaign finance reform, a tangled web if ever there were one, would have to be enacted.

Change doesn't mean throw the Democrats out and replace them with the Republicans. It means real change, in how we view ourselves and our community and our government — raising expectations and seeing they are met.

What will it be? It's our choice.