Govthink

Has the increasing size of government jaded us into perpetual Govthink in our everyday lives? I called AB on this today as we were cleaning.

In an effort to control the sprawl of stuff that accumulates out of my pockets and onto the dresser at the end of the day, AB gave me a small plate where I must put all of my pocket things. So far, I have been very good about this, though my plate is a little too full at the moment (kind of a metaphor of my life), and things are falling onto the dresser.

"I'm going to get you a bigger plate," AB told me this morning. "No!" I told her. I don't need a bigger plate, I need to clean out the plate I have and take some responsibility for it. Shouldn't this be default answer instead of always running to up the size of our portion?

Spending growth to keep track with inflation or population growth is one thing, but automatically giving more resources when the allotted resources run out only encourages growth for growth's sake. I don't need to keep mountains of change or old receipts or empty mint wrappers on my plate - I need to use the space for the things that I consistently use. Maybe one day I will need to carry massive amounts of stuff in my pockets on a daily basis and may need a bigger plate, but until that time, I'm going to take responsibility for efficiently using the space I've been given.

And for keeping my wife happy.