Role of Government

This is going to be one of those days here on Long Island where the weather is near perfect, new growth is all around, birds are preparing or maintaining their nests and its hard to imagine anything at all could be wrong. This is the end of earth week and we would all like to think that we are making progress towards solving some of the very real problems in the environment. We would also like to think that the economy is strating to improve.
There are of course folks that maintain a gloom and doom outlook as well as people who are naive optimists. However, and maybe I'm one of those naive optimists, when people understand what they should be doing most of them are perfectly willing to do it. Years ago I remember reading stories of how Americans would never take to recycling, now, it is extremely commonplace. People want to do the right thing but of course the most important right thing is normally very individual. Without getting too deep into the hierarchy of needs, I believe individuals need to feel secure before they can be altruistic. There are of course exceptions, but it is the role of Governement to align individual outcomes with societal outcomes. When Government caters to a small group at the expense of society as a whole, it is failing to fulfill its role. We may have just seen a period in which business executives were given greater influence and/or power than they should have been. I don't think the appropriate reaction to this is for the Government to start running banks and auto manufacturers, however, clear and logical regulation to protect society is extremely important. Let's see if they can get it right.