The big government shutdown charade may be over, at least for now, but I couldn't help noticing one glaring contradiction in the system. It's almost as if government is just a massive mafia using its service monopoly as a weapon to compel obedience or something...
The specific incident I have in mind is easy to relate, but requires context. Libraries are typically hubs for public information, and every year we are swamped with people who need to file taxes online using our computers, run copies of their forms, and pick up paper forms to fill out the old-fashioned way. In years past, we have been short of forms and instruction books as a standard state of affairs, and they often didn't even start arriving until late February.
With that in mind, even as the Infernal Revenue Service was unable to pay employees to ensure people were sent refunds for being excessively extorted, and government shutdowns cut off other monopolized services people actually want, we received vast quantities of paperwork so the people could properly register their obedience to the tax farm in mid-January. So the parks part of government was shut down, but the tax, war, police state, and corporate cronyism parts never faltered. Shed no tears for the poor oppressed government goons who went without pay. Maybe you don't want your health care or any other essential services monopolized by a system that can cut off access at a whim if politicians can't cooperate.
Of course, if you don't like the government services you're getting, you should be free to shut down your tax payment. Turnabout is fair play. But that's another matter for another post, perhaps.