Wisdom from the mouths of babes
Conversation at my favorite restaurant can be lively or boring. Sometimes points are argued to tedium.
No room at the counter, I was forced to have a late breakfast in one of several unoccupied booths. I was drinking my coffee, reading the sports section, when a group of people sat in the booth behind me. As they were getting situated, conversation was continuing from before they entered the restaurant.
" ... but a bigger government is a good thing," said the 30-something man.
"The cost of a bigger government is costly, ineffective and hides corruption," replied the grandfatherly gentleman as he was situating his preteen grandson.
"A bigger government will help weed out the corruption of big business and you need a lot of people to do it," responded the 30-something man, gritting his teeth.
The conversation was abruptly stopped when the waitress came to take their order. Neither seemed eager to continue their discussion. While waiting for their food, little was said. When the waitress came back to warm up their coffee while they waited, she said, "Who would have thought GM would file for Chapter 11?" and left.
The 30-something man said it was the only way to keep GM afloat and that shrinking the company would bring it back into profitability. A smaller GM would be better. He thought it was wise of the government to force them to do so.
The grandfather-looking man just sighed and said. "Another company too big to fail."
The preteen boy had a puzzled look on his face. He shyly asked, "If companies too big to fail are failing, won't a government too big fail, too? And why is it OK to make big companies smaller so they'll be more efficient? Why are we allowing a bigger, inefficient government and who is gonna bail out our government when it fails?"
I got up to pay my check. As I passed them, I looked at the two men in the booth. Both were deep in thought, and I chuckled. Maybe we need more innocence of a preteen in government and less professional politicians.
Manfred W. Czymmek
Elgin