My Fellow Citizens...

The next time you're visiting with a friend, discussing how government ought to spend money on one of your pet projects or that it should invest in the latest cause celeb, remind yourself that government is nothing but "we the people."  And the government's money is nothing more than money taken from, not freely given by, those same people.

Probably the best way to remember this perspective (and to remind all those around you) is to make a simple change to your vocabulary.  Whenever you are tempted to say "Government ought to..." replace that little phrase with the slightly longer "My fellow citizens ought to be forced to spend their own hard earned income to...".

Let's try this on for size.

"Government ought to subsidize the development of Wal-Mart and other retail establishments" would become  "My fellow citizens ought to be forced to spend their hard earned income to subsidize the development of Wal-Mart and other retail establishments."

"Government ought to help Real Salt Lake build a stadium" would become "My fellow citizens ought to be forced to spend their hard earned income to help Real Salt Lake build a stadium."

Do you see how easy that is?  Do you understand the power of looking from this new direction?  A nebulous, emotionless entity (the government) becomes a very personal and identifiable collection of individuals (my fellow citizens) and the method for securing funding (force) is clearly stated.

Let's try another example.  This one's a little trickier (and more personal).

"My wife and I chose to have a big family.  Education is important to us.  Government ought to spend more on our children's education."

This statement would become:

"My wife and I chose to have a big family.  Education is important to us.  My fellow citizens ought to be forced to spend their hard earned income on our children's education."

So the next time you decide that "government" should spend money, whether on something as trivial as a soccer stadium or meaningful like education, remember where the money came from and how it was acquired.