by Sanford Aranoff

Created on: June 16, 2010

The doctor prescribes some medication for your illness. You trust the doctor, you believe in the science, and have seen the medication advertised. Should you take the medication? The answer is that if you can manage without, then do not take it. When my children were young, we would not give them antibiotics unless they really needed it. Today too many people take antibiotics. Doctors know that if they do not prescribe antibiotics, the patients will simply go to another doctor.

We have mistaken ideas and trust in science. All science is based upon experimental verification, and experiments are valid only based upon statistical analysis. There is no absolute truth in science. If we understand this properly, we will be less eager to take medications.

The same is true for government actions. As problems arise in society, the government frequently proposes new legislation, orders, or regulations to deal with the problem. We should take the same attitude towards government actions as we should take towards medications. We must try hard to see how we can manage without the government actions.

For example, the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 resulted in severe government actions. It became extremely expensive to build new nuclear power plants. We could not use breeder reactors as the French do. We had to rely upon coal and oil to generate electricity, with the result of increasing air pollution, expenses, and reliance on foreign governments. We should have done nothing in 1979. If the government does less, we will be wealthier and healthier. 

Today we are being hurt by the Gulf oil spill. The government wants to “temporarily” ban offshore drilling. Again, we should do nothing, but simply work to preserve the marsh lands and stop the gushing oil. If the government does less, we will be wealthier and healthier. 

It was a mistake to pass the health care bill. Our health insurance problems are the result of government actions during World War II, imposing wage controls; to get around the government regulations, companies offered free medical insurance. The insurance problems would never have happened without the government wage controls. If the government does less, we will be wealthier and healthier. 

The housing bubble is a result of government demands on banks to give loans to people who could not afford them. If the government does less, we will be wealthier and healthier. 

Some say we need government action due to corporate greed. We do

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