By Barry Rubin
I keep coming across–on Internet and radio–ads produced by the U.S. government on every conceivable health and behavioral issue. They may be carried for free on sites and channels but there are still tax-paid employees producing and distributing them. They serve as fitting examples of what’s wrong with government today. And it’s really funny when they turn up in huge quantity on local radio broadcasts of Rush Limbaugh and other anti-big government programs.
Sure they are for nominally good causes, for example the don’t take your toys into the bedroom because they cause asthma attacks campaign. Then there are unforgettable ad campaigns over a guy who died because he ate too many fatty foods, why we should ride bicycles to work, warnings against crooked house mortgage companies, insistence that we go get medical check-ups, and countless others.
But the one that set me off is on Yahoo today. It shows an orange and yellow fish and says: “Dry off tub toys and bath area to prevent mildew.” And below it are logos for the Ad Council and the EPA. If you click you get to this site:
which also carries the EPA logo. And if you click there you get here: http://www.epa.gov/ which tells us all the wonderful things EPA is doing to police the air, water, etc.
Now, I’m not for childhood asthma, I have a touch of it myself, but is the purpose of the U.S. government to tell us to dry off bath toys? Besides, let’s face it, while these messages are nominally good do they have any effect on the real world? Are we defending the poor kids with asthma or obesity or the jobs of Federal bureaucrats running these programs that, I assume, don’t really help anyone. I’d bet that this kind of thing costs a good half billion or so in ad-writing, distribution, site-maintaining, and other time.
The test of any government program should be:
–Is it within the rightful, legal, and Constitutional tasks of the U.S. government?
–Do they really do any good in the real world?
–Are the costs of these programs worth paying, especially in a time of massive deficits and borrowing?
Could some investigative reporter look into this and total up all the money involved?
PS: One of the few letters I received on this was from a reader who (mockingly?) thanked me for giving him the url as he has subscribed to EPA and praised its great work on this campaign. There is clearly a very deep difference in viewpoints in America today. Do parents of children with asthma really need Federal taxpayer money–to highly paid bureaucrats to create and distribute adds–spent to tell them how to manage bath toys?
I was unaware of the threat, from now on I will dry off my bath toys.
Won’t do anything about the Iranian bomb or the deficit but we’re hell on mildew.
It’s gotten so bad that there are certain radio stations that I can no longer listen to because I can’t stand the constant government cajoling. I have to think that the feds are paying for them because these stations couldn’t operate otherwise. And the cheesy songs & tag lines, ugh. Especially effective are the ads directed toward children that run in the wee hours of the morning. I was hoping these were part of a limited “stimulus” but I’m beginning to think the stash is limitless.
Why am I the only one who seems to ever mention the 1957 book, Parkinson’s Law? C. Northcote Parkinson succinctly explained it in this one sentence: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Government bureaucrats tend to find new things to do. Additional activity is used to justify the need for increased power and financial remuneration.
Barry, you and your readers have only begun to scratch the surface of this particular bottomless hole into which the Feds throw our taxdollars.
What about the eat healthy ads featuring the first lady, Michelle Obama? What about the ones on bullying, exercise, asthma, smoking, reading, learning, tutoring? Or the ones promoting “free” (as in taxpayer-paid) broadband for all?
And now tub toys? Clearly there’s no corner of our life they intend to leave ungoverned.
Part and parcel is the seemingly endless supply of .gov websites designed to support all those ads. A new one pops up daily, each one more specialized than the last. And all the “old” ones have been revamped, refreshed and jazzed up in the 3 years of Obama’s reign, to the tune of millions (billions?) of dollars.
Will the EPA be held accountable when a sterile environment is proven to cause immune problems? That’s already been shown somewhat.
Chemically burning your skin to “kill germs” is also not healthy, yet that’s what hand sanitizer does.
Not sure why you make such a stink on this. Yes, it’s worthwhile to protect our children. Look at the fat ones running around these days and you’ll see how much you good parents do handling the responsibility. As far as your criteria, baloney. Constitutional tasks? Geez. The constitution is a guideline written over 200 years ago. Slavery is written in it for goodness sake. I wish you’d spend more time not acting like the Republican nominees for president and get on with what I originally subscribed to and paid money to you for.
Years ago they used to have these plastic orange cars with yellow roofs, kind of like a toy VW beetle, that children would “drive” and it had a little horn that beeped. The only time I’ve seen them now is in grocery stores built into carts. What company makes that and are they still for sale? If so, where can I buy one? (I’m guessing Toys r Us or Amazon but couldn’t find them when I searched!)
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