Reasons you might not want the government shut down

Once upon a time, I saw a documentary, The Corporation. They worked up the psychological profiles of corporations, and found that they were psychopaths. It made a lot of sense.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379225/combined

That probably sounds pretty harsh, but the point was that when you set up a corporation, it's sole purpose becomes to produce profit. When you have a person at the head of a company, they will want to make profit as well, but their humanity may still play a role in their decision making. Corporations are structured in a manner to reduce the human factor.

I have written before about how after reading a few Ann Rule books, I was stuck by how common it was for these cold-blooded killers to be so acquisitive, and then I realized I probably had it backwards. Their greed gave them motivation to turn off their consciences. Maybe they did not have much to shut down in the first place, but the data seems to indicate that it's even easier for a company to get there. So, when the Supreme Court or Mitt Romney tell you that corporations are people, it somehow becomes even more chilling.

Now, much of what conservatives promote for the economy is moving towards privatization, and that the free market will resolve everything. The problem is that private industry basically wants to make money, and government needs to accomplish things. Government may have goals that are based on concerns other than economic. Beyond that, the total economic good will not always align perfectly with a single company's maximized profit.

For example, The Jungle (from what I've read) is a pretty socialist book, but even people who hated socialists felt like maybe the meat-packing industry did need some reform, because hey, I'm eating that. Eventually, and with some resistance, you get the Food and Drug Administration. Yes, keeping unwanted things out of the food costs some extra money, so companies would not necessarily volunteer to do it, but you make it a law and give some teeth to enforcement, and it works out.

It is probably just a coincidence that about the time that the government shutdown pulled funding from the FDA, which suspends regular testing, that there was a large salmonella outbreak, because after all that one seems to go back to March, but still, it would not be at all surprising to see other outbreaks, because that's just how it goes. There are areas where government regulation of business is important.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/14/costco-chicken-recall_n_4099173.html

The government has an interest and a responsibility to keep the armed forces fed. With good bargaining and oversight, you might be able to do that well through a contractor, but disdaining the involvement and government leads to things like Halliburton not delivering food, or Supreme Group over-billing. This is profitable for those companies, but it did not serve the interests of the armed forces or the country, and was probably not beneficial to the economy overall, or at least not more beneficial than a scam-free process would have been.

Thomas Frank's excellent book The Wrecking Crew argues that this is actually the point of conservative policies, and not a bad side effect. Looking at what is happening right now, it's hard to argue.

It's reasonable to worry about government overreach, but going in the opposite direction to full-on contempt for the government doesn't work that well either. I do believe it requires an informed and engaged citizenry, and again, the conservative movement is not giving us that. But then, you could argue that based on their bent for construction, it is long past due to stop calling them conservatives.