Want to Know How to Stop a Centralized Bureaucracy? Math.

My friend Mark Glennon runs Wirepoints. He was on a radio show recently talking about public pensions.

Public pensions have bankrupted the state of Illinois, counties, and virtually all municipalities in Illinois. Bill Gurtin of Gurtin Fixed Income has said he would decline buying the public debt of two places: Puerto Rico and anywhere in Illinois.

Often, we think of the monolithic corporation as being a danger to freedom in America. It’s a pretty easy seed to plant with people that have to deal with companies like Comcast and ATT everyday. But, behind that monolithic corporate giant is an out of control larger monolith. The government. The government regulates corporations, but who regulates the government?

It’s easy to say, “the voters”. But, in states like Illinois every district over every geographic square inch has been gerrymandered to death. Kingmakers have cut up voters to make sure certain things happen. Tammy Duckworth has decided to run for Senate in Illinois. Democrats aren’t worried about her House seat-the election won’t be competitive. A Democrat is virtually guaranteed to replace her.   Last week, there was a primary to replace Aaron Schock in Peoria.  Republicans aren’t too concerned since the district has been drawn to guarantee Republican domination.  In certain parts of the state, there are severe social consequences to going against the local Machine. In the city of Chicago, it’s tougher to be an out of the closet Republican than it is to be gay!

At least corporations have competition that keeps them honest.  Even Comcast has a couple of competitors in the regulated oligarchy they have helped their government pals set up.  The real danger to the free, open, capitalistic society the Founding Fathers set up isn’t the mega corporation.  It’s the mega government that enables the mega corporation.

The only thing that will upend the carefully crafted apple cart the political bosses have set up is math.  The math that Mark talks about in the Soundcloud clip I posted is rapidly becoming a reality in states like Illinois.  The answer from Democratic politicians has been to look for ways to increase taxes and fees to keep the shell game going.  None of them have cut the size and scope of government.  None of them have deregulated anything to allow more choice and freedom for people.  Interestingly, the United States federal budget allocates 62% of all spending to entitlements, and the number will rise dramatically with Obamacare.  It’s totally unsustainable but the crony capitalists in Washington don’t care about it.  They’ll be fine.

Or society is transitioning from the old centralized industrial model to a network model of infrastructure.  It’s time to rethink the way we govern.  It’s time to rethink entitlement spending and create the climate where private networked models can efficiently produce goods and services for people instead of government.  Network models push choice to consumers and make them free.  They set up, disband, flow and change to suit the needs of the people in the network.   Networks work better for individuals and end users most of the time.  What’s a bigger threat to a company like Uber?  Competition from similar companies or government?

Companies like Streamlink Software can provide transparency and accountability to governments.  They can also help governments lower costs dramatically.  Did you know it costs the US federal government $200 billion to manage $500 billion in grant money?  What a money suck.

When the math tells governments their time is up, they are forced to make some really tough decisions.  Society can break down.  Look at Detroit.  Look at Venezuela.  Look at Argentina.  Look at Greece.  At least if you live in a state like Illinois, or a city like Chicago, you can move away and avoid the math.  But what happens when it’s the United States?