Beware whenever you the word "Volunteer" coming out of the mouth of a government official. The two President Bushes were very enthusiastic about citizens volunteering to get things done in the community. Of course, if the citizens volunteered to collect the garbage, pave the roads, teach the school children, man the emergency rooms, hand out soup to the starving at soup kitchens, then government would not have to pay people to any of these things, and this was seen as a good thing and wonderful way to serve the people without having to pay for it.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt eventually decided to go the other route, by putting citizens on the payroll to do essential jobs, and then, when there weren't enough of those to employ everyone, he dreamed up some less essential jobs, like planting trees, painting murals and doing a lot of things which still have value today, but which in his time were disdained by the wealthy as "make work" jobs. Somehow, though, the citizens elected him to 16 years of office, more than any other president before or since.  

While it took the American public eight years to catch on to the problems inherent in pleading with citizens to do the jobs which government didn't want to pay for, and to see that the Reagan mantra of "Government is not the solution; government is the problem," meant that government when run incompetently really is a problem, but when run well can offer at least some solutions, apparently the idea has floated across the Atlantic like a cloud of marijuana smoke and the current coalition government led by David Cameron has inhaled deeply.

Britain, the plan is, will become a "less selfish" place. The State will be replaced by the Community.  Instead of hiring people to guide tourists around London during the 2012 Olympics, volunteers will do the work, unpaid, intoxicated by the ad campaign: "Ten days giving directions. Ten nights with a sore throat...Have you got what it takes?"

The British government is just giddy with the prospect of all the free labor (not Labour) it will get out of its citizens. Signs which once advertised paying jobs now advertise "Opportunities," to sweep out yoga studios, for free.

Of course, if you are Lady So and So, a little slumming giving directions to the Olympics may prove invigorating, but if you are unemployed, middle class, Lady So and So is taking your job.

It really is quite astonishing, when you think about it. The rich, well supported are asking the much less wealthy, the strugglig to be a good sport and do the work for free, and this is sold as governing smart.

All of this comes as a great relief to me, as an American, because it means the Brits, after all, are at least as stupid as we are,as we have been. So many Europeans pointed to the re election of George W. as evidence the U.S. electorate was afflicted with brain worm. 

Now it appears the worm has spread.

Well, we do have globalization.


Once upon a time there were British fighter pilots who volunteered to save the Empire by flying up to smash the Luftwaffe. But you know, they were paid volunteers.  When you come right down to it, they were government employees with full benefits and pensions--if they could only live to collect them.


But the thing is, government worked for the Brits during the Battle of Britain.