Serving Our Country

I find it interesting that close to half the people in the United States consider the government a gravy train. Yet these same folks jump at the opportunity to praise our military, firemen, police, and other duty oriented service bureaucracies. It is as if, the teacher, social worker, or environmental regulator, are something different. These folks are serving our country too. It blows me away how quickly the conservative philosophy calls for smaller government and contradicts its support of service to country. In fact they support the privatization of just about everything which, in turn, emphasizes a loyalty to the stakeholder, which in most cases desires a global audience. So I find the contradiction personal.

My dad is a teacher and my mother is a health administrator. They both serve their community using tax dollars. In a great picture they too are serving their country. The investor is the tax payer, whether it be a sales, income, or other tax. Is there inefficiencies in government run programs? Sure, but it is foolish to believe that corporations are any less susceptible to inefficiencies. It is getting irritating that with all the patriotism that exists, we are so forgetful that Wall Street is serving the largest global investment corporations in the world (brokers). So is privatization the answer, why argue? But if you are gonna honor the soldier for serving their country, please don't disrespect my parents for trying to serve theirs.