Advances

While traipsing through the interwebs today I found this diary at Kos. It's some interesting (if not entirely economically literate) discussion of the investment or lack thereof in American infrastructure.

At any rate, in the comments was linked this essay by George McGovern. The quote I'm concerned with is as follows:

Virtually every step forward in our history has been a liberal initiativet aken over conservative opposition: civil rights, Social Security, Medicare,rural electrification, the establishment of a minimum wage, collective bargaining, the Pure Food and Drug Act, and federal aid to education, including the land-grant colleges, to name just a few.*

(emphasis mine)

If you believe that every step forward in our history is provided by the government, then, yes, you are probably a liberal. If you like things like:

• Personal computing (and, yes, the Internet, or at most of the content thereon)
• Telephones, both wired and cellular
• Automobiles
• Drop ceilings
• A thingy that sprays cleaning solution around your shower so you don't have to scrub it
• Pizza delivery

Then you might realize that not all steps forward are provided by the government, and too much government interference might prevent the invention of things we like and use.