A Closer Look at Distrust of Government

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I was puzzling over the failure of the Democratic Congress of 2008 and President Obama to pass Healthcare Reform Legislation.  Why, I asked myself, is there such suspicion of government sponsored healthcare?

The upper-middle-class really has a reason to view healthcare reform with dislike: it would seem to be accompanied by higher taxes.  The reform was presented as being tax-neutral, but over the years, as the country got a taste for the service, one could imagine Government Health Service expanding, with an ever-increasing load on taxpayers.  Healthy taxpayers would hate it, but the average taxpayer would benefit, since most basic services would be performed for free: your annual or half-yearly checkup: free; basic emergency room visits for simple surgery: free; family planning, neonatal care, elective and compulsory inoculations: free; preventive medicine related to diet, exercise, lowering health risks such as cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood sugar: free.  Most Americans pay for all this anyway.

But ordinary middle class, and working class folks are against health reform!!  These people's share of the tax burden for health care will be negligible, but they are deathly afraid of it.  In heaven's name, why?

The suspicion must come from Government Services that are presently provided, but, at least in the view of common people, badly carried out.  The example that pops into mind is: Education.  Is it possible that the Face of Government for many folks ---and most certainly, the Face of Authority--- is the schoolteacher.  Even though it is the local government that ultimately controls the schools, it could well be that in the minds of many, Washington looks like the school: a place from where you get your education, a place which dominates your spare time with homework and other tedious responsibilities, and over which you have very little control.

I looked up on the Internet for a ranking of student achievement averages by State, and found only one site that was willing to provide the figures for 2003 for free, but wanted me to take a subscription in order to be given more recent data.  I just went with the data for 2003.

The table is at right, in the form of an image.  Here is a link to the actual page for the first table.

Let's look at the achievement in Elementary School, i.e., the Grade Four reading and mathematics scores.  The last several states are Hawaii, Mississippi, Alabama, and New Mexico, with Louisiana and California not doing much better.  A little higher up come Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Tennessee, and Arkansas.  These are the states whose students fared worst in these tests.

Is it possible that the residents of these states would expect that Government Health Care will stink as badly as Government Education?

The top achievers are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont.  I don't know about NH; perhaps their State Health Care motto is Private Health Care Or Die, but Massachusetts is certainly for Healthcare Reform, despite all the energetic efforts of the Tea Party to confuse Massachusetts residents.

When it comes to Middle School achievement, the top scorers are again Massachusetts, New Hampshire, with Minnesota and North Dakota.  The low scorers are, again,MS, AL and NM, joined by Hawaii.

It's difficult to tell what drives these variations in state achievement.  States with many families living below or close to the poverty line can be expected to have low average achievement: a child needs family support, a home environment conducive to grappling with ideas introduced in school even briefly each day, nutrition, rest, security, all of which impinge school performance, and all of which are threatened by poverty.

A large proportion of ethnic minorities might seem to influence achievement, but belonging to a minority alone should not influence school achievement, except via the poverty factor.

Latitude does seem to have a mysterious effect on achievement; it remains to be shown whether it has a corresponding effect on suspicion of government!

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