Government Is King Midas in Reverse

Hello, and welcome! Glad you stopped by. Today is Dec. 2, 2025. Now that you’ve got smaller amounts of leftover Turkey, you might try the air fryer.

Today in History:

2001: Enron filed for bankruptcy.

1988: Benazir Bhutto sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan.

1982: First artificial heart transplant. Barney Clark, the transplant patient, lived for 112 days after the procedure.

1939: LaGuardia Airport opens in New York City.

Birthdays today include Britney Spears, Nelly Furtado, and Maria Callas.

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Thumbs Up: First, let’s start with some good news for a change. Word from Fox is that Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, who survived the attack near the White House the other day, is responding well. He’s been upgraded from “critical” to “serious.”

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey and Maj. Gen. James Seward, adjutant general of the West Virginia National Guard, provided an update Monday on their operations in Washington as well as the condition of critically wounded guardsman, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe.
…

Morrisey said Wolfe’s condition appears to be improving, telling reporters in Charleston that there had been some "positive news" from friends and family in the hospital.

"Andrew was asked if he could hear the nurse who asked the question to give a ‘thumbs up’ and he did respond," the governor said, calling the soldier’s mother, Melody, "such a positive force" and that she and her husband Jason’s top request of the public is to continue to offer prayers.

OK, he’s not out of the woods yet, but I’ll take the change in status as good news. On to the main event.

Government Is King Midas in reverse

The Hollies released a single in the fall of 1967 called “King Midas in Reverse.” It was a bit of a departure from previous efforts at the end of a long string of hits, like “Bus Stop,” "Pay You Back With Interest,” and so on. Apparently, because of that different sound, the single didn’t chart well, despite critical acclaim. It only got to #51 on the US Hot 100, though it did better in the UK and Australia. It is a song about a man who can’t get anything right, but who has a self-confidence level of less than zero. Everything he touches turns to dust.

I think government is that way. Let me pass along some examples of this trend. 

1. Education
 
I’ve written previously that I’m all for removing education from the hands of the government. Long-time readers will recall that I cheered the end of the Federal Department of Education, which the Democrats still maintain is needed. To which I ask, “For what?”

It turns out, according to a New York Post story, most Americans are now starting to see my point:

A new NBC News poll finds that a full 63% of voters believe a four-year college degree now isn’t worth it, since many students graduate with “a large amount of debt” but no “specific job skills.”

That’s up markedly from 2013, when a majority took the opposite view, as 53% called a degree “worth the cost because people have a better chance to get a good job and earn more money over their lifetime.”

I suggest that a goodly amount of that turnaround results from the increased governmental involvement in the educational process, particularly that of the Federal government. Since Jimmy Carter established the Federal Department of Education:

Tuition costs have skyrocketed, doubling over the last 20 years (a redoubling from two decades earlier), as universities jacked up prices to match increased “help” such as federal aid and ever-larger government-facilitated student loans.

But in return for 70 grand or more a year, students today too often don’t get prepared for a lucrative or even stable career.

Countless colleges have transformed into woke indoctrination factories that churn out grads with liberal arts degrees and zero specialized skills.

A report last year found that two-thirds of colleges require DEI-related courses to graduate, offering classes like “Understanding Diversity in a Pluralistic Society” and “Abolition of Whiteness.”

Please take particular note that I didn’t know about this story from the Post before I wrote yesterday’s column.

2. Charity, welfare, direct payments, etc.

Welfare, food stamps, and so on — time was, the work of charity was getting people back on their feet, able to support themselves. That’s not the measurement anymore, however. Progress is now measured by how much taxpayer money is being spent.

The story here is that when government becomes involved with something, no matter what that something is, its original purpose gets obliterated. When it becomes recognized that the programs are not having the originally desired effect, government starts tossing more money at the problem. It’s to the point now that, at the federal level, some 45% of the total budget is going to such programs. And yet, the complaint is that it’s not enough.

3: Transportation

First, let’s look briefly at passenger rail service in the United States today. It’s government-run. Back in the day, many different railroads gave very serious passenger service to our country. The passenger train industry named its trains things like the Empire State Limited, the Commodore Vanderbilt, the Twentieth Century Limited, the Afternoon Steeler, the Zephyr, the Black Diamond, the Phoebe Snow, and so on.

Eventually, technological changes combined with government actions to cripple these services. It’s true that air travel and the automobile had large negative effects on the passenger rail industry, but the lion’s share of the damage came from government interference. Regulators required privately owned rail companies to keep running service to areas that simply were not covering the costs of operating those trains. With increased labor costs brought on by government-forced unionization and rising fuel costs, the rail companies were driven into bankruptcy.

Having created the problem, government portrayed itself as the hero (of course), with Amtrak. Nowadays, Amtrak is an extremely limited service, concentrated in the Northeast and particularly in the Northeast Corridor. It hasn't made dime one since day one, and it shows up in Congress, hat in hand, with increasingly large funding requests.

I won't dive deeply into it, but I’d be remiss not to mention the train to nowhere in California.

The automobile industry has also suffered from government interference. Just one example is required, here. In 1969, the Ford Maverick was created to replace the Ford Falcon, which was ending production soon. The Maverick was initially offered as a two-door sedan. It was a pretty sharp-looking car, and I actually owned one. The MSRP at the Maverick’s 1969 debut was $1,995. That’s about $17,000 of today’s money. That's right — even with that inflation adjustment, it was still a much lower price than anything on the economy new car market today, which my trusty Alexa tells me costs on average around $23,860.

So where’s all that extra cost coming from? Why, government mandates, of course. Initially, consumers started buying cars from other countries, such as Japan. But government interference has made even foreign models too expensive. Want to know why the auto market is collapsing? There you go.

By the way, the cost of trucks is rising through all of this, as well — again, driven by government mandates, EPA regs, etc. Trucks bring you literally everything you buy. Think your prices are unaffected by the costs of transportation? After many years on the road, I can tell you firsthand that's not true.

4. Housing

Housing costs have risen, by some reports, many times faster than the rate of inflation over the last 40 years. All of it comes down to government involvement in the housing process at every level. Among the government-caused issues are high mortgage rates, a limited housing supply, restrictive zoning, government mandates on building codes, etc.

Recommended: The Self-Hate Crisis: How Our Culture Turned Against Its Own History

Now, understand this is a very limited list, but it does clearly show a trend: Government isn’t the solution. The government tells you it has solved problems with every law it passes, but in the long term, it is the problem.

You being here means a lot to us, and it means a lot to me, personally, as well. Thanks for reading and for your online comments. Enjoy the day, and don't let them get to you. I'll see you tomorrow. 

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