Dakota Beacon

Indisputable Truth – All Men Are Created Equal

The first sentence of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” All truthful statements, like this famous example, can be manipulated by desperate men who are as determined to fight for a lie as honorable men are determined to fight for truth. That unfortunate reality, however, does not diminish the virtue of the basic truth expressed.

Indisputable Truth – The government closest to the people serves the people best

Thomas Jefferson, as well as most experienced politicians since, understood that “The government closest to the people serves the people best.” For example, a City Council is more efficient than a County Commission… which is more efficient than the US State within which it lies… which is likewise more efficient than the United States’ federal government. While geography first comes to mind, the proximity of the citizen client to the entity in question is the determining factor. Thus, the Social Security Administration, working directly with each citizen client (with little or no “in between” intervention) is one of, if not the most efficient of federal agencies (administration cost from 0.5% to 1% of benefits distributed, depending on which party is in power).

Indisputable Truth – All Politics is Local

There are many such self-evident truths that are almost universally embraced. 47^th Speaker of the House, Thomas Phillip “Tip” O’Neill Jr., expressed perhaps the second most universally accepted truth in the United States, “All politics is local” after suffering his first and only political defeat running for a seat on the Cambridge, Massachusetts City Council.

Indisputable Truth – The government is best which governs the least

Henry David Thoreau, in his essay on “Civil Disobedience” (originally published as “Resistance to Civil government,” an argument in favor of civil disobedience against an unjust state) claimed that “The government is best which governs the least.”

Summarizing these Truths

While the first three Truths examined above are as true today as they were when first stated in 1776, 1853 and 1932, the last of the four, stated in 1849, is the one I wish to discuss more thoroughly herein.

Life Experiences

As a civil engineer who worked in city government for 4 different cities, Grand Forks (5 years) and Bismarck (5 years), ND, Yuma (1 1/2 years), AZ, and Colorado Springs (5 1/2 years) CO… and as an employee of a private coal mining firm (15 years), a private engineering and surveying firm (10 years), and an environmental firm (2008 -present), I have extensive engineering experience in municipal government engineering, the coal mining industry, airport planning, design & construction, and environmental compliance (Writing Oil Spill Prevention,. These experiences have provided me with extensive knowledge of the differences between private enterprise and government. There are few commonalities between the two, save the cherished relationships with co-workers. As government grows it becomes less efficient while as private enterprise grows, it becomes more efficient.

Examples of Inefficient Government

Problem 1: Congested Intersection of two-lane roadway with four-lane limited access highway

Four-way at-grade intersections where a county road or highway intersects a four lane limited-access highway have been the scenes of many accidents involving “broadside” collisions between vehicles making left turns onto the two-lane road across oncoming traffic (crossing two lanes while turning left), vehicles directly crossing the four lane highway (crossing four lanes while going straight), vehicles making right turns (entering the closest lane or crossing the closest lane to get to the passing lane), or vehicles making left turns (crossing two lanes and entering the passing lane or crossing three lanes to enter the driving lane).

The total number of legally possible broadside collisions at such four way at-grade intersections is 14 to 18 (total 32) depending on the choice between entering the driving or passing lane when turning (left or right). Possible rear-end collisions is limited to two turning lanes, one in each direction.

Solution: The “J Intersection”

The “J” Intersection only allows right turns at the four-way intersection, instead requiring those wishing to turn left to turn right first, travel a distance required to make two lane changes, then make a “U” turn entering the oncoming lanes (of the four-lane highway) to facilitate going left from the original position on the two-lane roadway.

The total number of potential broadside and rear end collisions is the same but the congestion of a single intersection is mitigated by spreading the risk to two additional (“U” turn) locations. So, the average risk per location is cut to 1/3 of its original risk.

Benefits: Less congestion at a high incident intersection.

Detriments: Addition of two new intersections involving risk. Construction cost of implementing the change. Temporary unfamiliarity to drivers until the different vehicle routes/routines are learned. Long term additional driving time and fuel cost to reach the same destination. The overall risk is believed to be the same…but the proof is in the pudding… we shall have to wait and see.

Summation:

The beauty of this government “idea” is that it will take 5 to 20 years of collision data to prove it allows less accidents (if it does?) so most of the government employees who either devised the scheme or went along with its trial period will be retired from government. And hopefully the data will not prove it to be less safe than the original crossing.

Problem 2: Vehicles travelling on a four-lane highway cross the median into oncoming traffic, causing head on collisions.

Solution: Steel wire guard rail installed at edges of median to theoretically deter vehicles (except semi-tractor/trailers) from crossing the median.

Benefits: Prevention of a limited number of head-on auto collisions.

Detriment: Potential to slice motorcyclists like a cheese-slicer should they stray out of their lane.

Summation:

The beauty of this government idea only exists in the event society wishes to murder motorcyclists for straying from their lane. W-beam guardrails are a more expensive, but less murderous approach.

Non-problem 3: The driver that is unaware of the counter-clockwise rotation of “roundabouts” newly constructed on four lane highways.

Solution: Apply left-turn arrows on the roadway surface immediately prior to entering a roundabout.

Benefits: None

Detriments: This introduction of confusion to the unfamiliar motorist may well convince the motorist to turn clockwise onto the counterclockwise roundabout, causing a low-speed (i.e. 15 MPH) head on collision. It is a good example of over-signing. Over-signing involves placing so many directional signs along the roadway that the motorist cannot absorb all the information presented while driving at the posted speed.

Non-problem 4: Politicians are urged by constituents to legislate to increase speed limits where sight distance or other geometric engineering requirements do not allow an increase to be implemented safely.

This is a dilemma faced by legislators almost constantly throughout the United States. Legislators typically bring the request to an appointed department of transportation director, commissioner, secretary, or similarly titled official in charge. An excellent example is the two-lane roadway system in New Mexico where “Dips” in the roadway allow the passage of runoff over the roadway following rainfall events (also called a “Texas Crossing”). These roadways are signed for 65 MPH despite vertical curves that likely were designed for 35 MPH, creating possibilities for rear end collision, and resulting liability lawsuits.

Solution: The official in charge of a state’s department of transportation must comply with speed limit designations within highway design parameters as documented on highway engineering plans and verified by registered professional engineers. To do otherwise leaves the state open to liability lawsuits. If the official in charge fails to comply with documented engineered speed requirements, that official is likely personally liable for accidents that occur because of dereliction of the official’s duty to the public.

Summation: Qualified registered highway engineers must determine allowable speed limits, not Department of Transportation appointed officials or elected officeholders, especially if an officeholder happens to also be an engineer, of which several varieties exist, not all competent in traffic engineering. The engineers that are trained, licensed, and paid to assign correct speed limits must set such speed limits.

The government is best which governs the least. Why?

The answer may best be provided by reference to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, a pamphlet first published on January 10, 1776. Paine first explained the stark difference between Society and Government, as paraphrased be low:

Society

Society is produced by our wants, and promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections. Society encourages intercourse and society is a patron. Society in every state is a blessing. Were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest of his property. Security being the true design and end of government, it follows that whatever form of government appears more likely to ensure security to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.

Government

Government is produced by our wickedness, and promotes our happiness negatively by restraining our vices. Government creates distinctions and is a punisher. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence. Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

Paine’s Summary Quotation

“Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security.

Government Obesity

When voters and the politicians they elect endeavor to “pick winners and losers” in a capitalist system, all hell breaks loose. The average price of almost everything has risen about 20% in the last 3 ½ years.

First, environmental extremists and their special interest friends (solar panel, electric vehicle, and other overpriced private initiatives) convinced about half of us that government must subsidize (pick winners and losers) to accelerate our market driven transition from fossil fuels to every alternative but the one that makes the most sense and is now a very safe alternative… nuclear.

Second, elected politicians (and those that “guide” them) decided that, instead of the historical regulation of the fossil fuel industry towards a level playing field among companies in that industry, it must instead declare war on the fossil fuel industry. It began with the cancellation of a privately funded pipeline project, Keystone Xcel, and a huge increase in over-regulation of the industry by our federal government. As many of us understand, the price of gasoline, diesel fuel, natural gas, propane, and other fuels affect delivery costs of every commodity and service we wish to purchase. Some of us also realize that a pandemic, supply chain issues, and other excuses for rampant inflation are a smokescreen to hide the real causes of inflation, the government printing of US Dollars and the government conversion of our country from a fuel exporter to a fuel price-fixer.

Why do they do this?

The politicians that have done this to all of us have done so to make us dependent upon government so they are assured of perpetual re-election due to the “needs” of the people. Politicians know that it is the “needs” of people that make them desperate enough to vote for such “needs.” The “desires” of the people have always been met by the people themselves, due to courage to take risks and due to hard work and ingenuity. We have become a “needy” but also “entitled” nation. The “lifer” of “professional” politicians have us right where they want us.

The Diet

1. Delayed Gratification

We must, as a nation, restrain from paying such high prices whenever we can. Put off the new car, new bed, new home, new everything. Unless the price returns to the item’s Jan 20, 2021 level.

1. Ignore the government when they warn of their worst nightmare… deflation.

Deflation will make the money the government has borrowed (mostly from other countries) go up in value… something they were not counting on. Deflation makes the investor’s pocket fatter. Why do you think the Federal Reserve’s target for inflation is 2% instead of 0% or -2%? Because the money taxpayers must pay back to other countries that invest in our debt is worth 2% less each year. And those investors would rather lose 2% to inflation in the US than the higher inflation of almost every other country in the world. The only thing keeping the US solvent is the fact that many other countries borrow even more in comparison with their GDP or Gross Domestic Product (the value of all goods and services produced by a country over a year).

1.  Vote for politicians that pledge to reduce government spending… do not vote for politicians that promise you stuff… no matter what the stuff is.
2. Vote in every election, not just November presidential elections.

Primary (June) elections are usually won by special interest groups that focus on getting their candidates selected for the ballot of the general election in November.

1. If you are financially able, run for office to guarantee that spending on special interests is terminated.

The Reward

If you do these things, you are a patriot and a hero to your grandchildren and to your country, not a needy dependent of government. If you do not like to work or make courageous decisions in life, continue to belong to the mass of folks who life lives of quiet desperation. If you are desperate due to events beyond your control, understand that you will be” helped up” by society, not government. Society is a blessing, government a punisher.

Love = Work + Courage