"When you need an excuse, any one will do." Listening to the myriad justifications for Utah to accept federal bailout dollars for public education reminds me of that old saying. But let's not play that game here. Let's look at the truth.
Utah is on a path to financial bankruptcy, like nearly every other state in the Union, if our decisionmakers continue to insinuate that principle-based governance is subordinate to revenue-based governance. For years I have objected to the analogy that government should be run like a business. Government is not a business. The business community rightly operates through revenue-based governance. Our governments should not. Our governments should do what government was intended to do — establish order in protecting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people.
Accepting federal bailout dollars for public education sends a clear signal to all Utah decisionmakers: Gain trumps every other consideration. This signal contributes to the establishment of a culture over time. More and more, this simple signal defines every governmental decision. Pretty soon, we view our federal and state legislators as nothing more than errand boys sent to bring home the bacon. Invariably, many Utah decisionmakers begin to think that government creates jobs and generates wealth. And then, inevitably, our culture of government changes for the worse. We refuse to admit that Utah isn't unique. We fall into the delusion that we live and govern according to principle, when in reality, our model of governance is to get gain.
When our model of governance is to chase dollars, we are not far off from institutionalizing deep into the behavioral psyche of every Utah elected official and government employee that their primary job is raising money, and that the value of their role rests on how much revenue they bring into state and local coffers. That course would be a tragedy. Further, it would destroy our free society.
Over 150 years ago, Frederic Bastiat called this model of governance "lawful plunder." Everyone knows it's wrong to steal from another person. It's plunder. "Lawful plunder" occurs when a majority of people agree to steal from another person. Taking federal bailout dollars for public education feeds a culture of "lawful plunder." Taking these dollars reinforces this culture in other areas of governance such as government "economic development," wherein government employees use our tax dollars to pick winners and losers in the marketplace and pit one Utah company against another Utah company.
A revenue-based model of governance has adverse consequences. One obvious consequence is that justice — a primary reason to establish government at all — disappears as we monetize our social order. Under these circumstances, we begin to lose our collective soul. That this point is evidently secondary, perhaps unimportant, to many Utah decisionmakers should be highly disturbing for freedom-loving people.
Yes, when you need an excuse, any one will do. And when our excuse to take federal bailout dollars for public education is summarized by "we'd be foolish not to because everyone else does it," you can know with certainty that our model of governance in Utah has changed from principle-based to revenue-based, and "lawful plunder" is the new standard.
Paul T. Mero is president of Sutherland Institute, a conservative public policy group in Salt Lake City.