Browsing through our regular newspapers, we spotted an article in the Folha de Sao Paulo titled “Government already is considering resuming roads that would be auctioned”.
Summary: Brazil needs new roads (or so the government says). Therefore, the administration is auctioning the creation of those roads to the private sector on the agreement that they will be toll-roads. The problem is that many of those roads are simply too expensive to build and there will not be enough traffic to make a profit. Hence, the administration has decided to pay for the unprofitable roads.
This is a classic example of government waste at a massive scale. The government in Brazil will build them but nobody will come.
The concept is very simple indeed. If there is not enough traffic to pay for the roads, this simply means that there isn’t enough people interested in using those roads.
In so doing, people are sending a clear message to the government: don’t do it.
The government in its infinite wisdom and armed with its absolute knowledge of the future has determined otherwise. These roads will be useful for… err… social reasons?… yeah… social sounds good. Let’s also throw in a little bit of economic improvement and nation building. Sure, why not? Nobody will ever know the difference anyways.
This is a classic failed Democratic concept that works at many levels.
- The first level is the lack of public consultation and therefore it is unknown what the people really want.
- The second level is the assumption that government officials somehow know what the people want without ever consulting them.
- The third level is government officials ignoring reality, and going ahead with the project knowing in advance that it will be a failure.
- The fourth level is government officials spending untold wealth from unsuspected taxpayers, without their knowledge or consent, in a project that is known in advance to be a failure.
- The fifth level is government officials painting themselves under a good social light (for political profit), by implying that the government will make a giant sacrifice in a selfless act for the wellbeing of their citizens, where greedy corporations won’t.
There are, of course, many other levels of stupidity in this event, but we won’t bore you with them.
It suffices to notice that stupidity is the prevalent characteristic in Democratic systems because it is also a political imperative. No wonder they are circling the drain. All of them.
Sure, you can close your eyes but that won’t change reality a bit. It’s better to run into a shit storm with your eyes opened than stumbling in the sewer in darkness.
Now you know. It’s up to you to get a light.
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
