Government needed

* Milt Herring's July-6 letter to the Tennessean news paper said that Americans satisfied with their liberty fell from 91% in 2006 to 79% in 2013. He attributed the decline in satisfaction to government intervention in the form of regulation, taxes, political correctness, church-state separation, etc.
* The decline seems modest, considering that we were at the peak of a speculative bubble in 2006 and have been climbing out of the resulting economic collapse since 2008, and considering that we have been told since 2008 that Obama is an illegitimate leader destroying the economy, nation and constitution (more than 9 hrs/day by that pernicious purveyor of seditious slander, Fox radio).
* I doubt Mr Herring applauds the freedom from government intervention in northern Nigeria. He probably wishes regulators had prevented banks from tempting home buyers into adjustable-rate mortgages up to 125% of appraised value. He probably hopes there are some resources for future Americans. I doubt he misses the pre-PC belittling of disadvantaged people around the water cooler. Surely he doesn't admire religion-permeated governments common outside Europe and the Americas.
* Government intervention is the price of a civilized society, where people respect each others rights, even if begrudgingly. Without it, the primitive drives that enabled our survival and evolution would lead to rampant harm. Government compensates for failures of family, school, church and culture to instill character.
* Government would be better if leaders discussed economics with engineers, mathematicians, biologists and inventors, imaginative people who understand system dynamics.