Before the congressional super committee begins dismantling and destroying our core institutions as commanded by empirically disprovable tea party talking points, would it not be prudent to at least first figure out the reality and totality of what it is one seeks to destroy? What is the US government actually worth? What have previous generations created and left for us? What is the actual market value in an of itself, and to the businesses and citizens of America, of this otherwise abstract and pervasive entity we call "the US government?"
For example, is it possible to add up the total annual value of one of the thousands of services provided by the US government such as... say weather forecasting? Weather forecasting for agriculture - for transportation, logistics, and recreation-servicing industries in the US? What is a calculated estimate of how many airplane accidents are prevented each year by having accurate weather forecasts available? What is the total dollar value saved by preventing weather related aviation accidents? Weather related boating accidents? Driving accidents? What are weather forecasts worth to the recreational industries? Theme parks, ski resorts, NASCAR? Commercial fishermen? How much total money is saved by farmers being able to use weather data to plan crop planting, nurturing, harvesting, storage, and transportation?
What are all the roads in America worth - not just their replacement value, but how much money does having roads in America allow American business to make? How many more cars are sold because of all the roads to drive on? And thus tires, car stereos, and scented pine tree rear-view mirror air fresheners? How much more oil is sold because of all the roads people can drive all their trucks and cars and motorcycles on? What's all the commerce worth at the tens of thousands of convenience stores that are add-on business to gas stations? On average, how many jobs are added to the American economy per mile of road? Multiply that that by the number of miles of road - and how many jobs have been added because of our system of national highways and roads? What is the average dollar value to the economy of each of those jobs? What is the total dollar value of all jobs added because of all the public roads in America?
What is the quantifiable value of having a nation-wide public firefighting infrastructure? What is the total national savings in insurance premiums because this infrastructure exists? What is the total quantifiable value of all the lives of all the people who are saved annually by the firefighting infrastructure of the US? Of all the business infrastructure saved? Of homes and neighborhoods saved? What is the cumulative perceived value of having a firefighting infrastructure - i.e. how much would you pay each year to have an equivalent response capability as you enjoy now through public infrastructure if everyone had to subscribe to fire protection services like you do cable TV?
What is the net present added value of a good education for a typical citizen? Multiply that by 300 million and multiply that by the percentage of American education provided by American public schools and universities, funding, grants, vouchers, programs, military education, vocational training, and educational resources, materials and facilities. What is the total calculated dollar value that US businesses benefit from the education of their employees paid for by the American government? By the education of their consumers paid for by the American government that allow them to become customers of the company in the first place?
What is the annual value created for US businesses from US government funded research at US government labs, and funded by US government research grants, programs, universities, and agencies? What is the value of US government materials science research? Medical research? Energy research? Aerospace research? Semi-conductor and computing research? As the internet is one such program, what is the total value to US businesses of the internet? How does that current value compare to the total cost of research and development to create the internet? Was it a good investment for the American people for the US government to create the internet?
What is the best estimate of a quantifiable dollar value to American businesses and citizens for the security provided by the US military? What is the value of all US military procurement of vehicles, infrastructure, technologies, systems, goods and services by the US military from US companies worth to US companies? What is the value of all the lives given so that US businesses would be free to conduct business without having to expend their own resources protecting their facilities and personnel and inventories and business deals?
What is value of all the traffic lights in America? How much would it cost to replace them all? Multiplying the estimated number of prevented accidents from having those lights by the estimated lifetime cost per accident, what is the total costs saved by the American people and American businesses from having traffic lights? Stop signs? Yield signs? School zone signs? Reflectors in the road? Crash barriers? Highway dividers? Guard rails? Street lights? Seat belts? Regulations on the design and function of brake pads? Steering wheel connectors? Automotive glass? Child safety seats?
What is the total value of GPS navigation to US businesses? How much would American businesses and citizens be willing to spend on a subscription basis to have GPS navigation? What are the estimated savings in efficiency by having GPS technology available to US businesses? What is the value of being able to mark GPS coordinates for businesses? In resource exploration? In the middle of the ocean? In crop fields? In tracking trucks across the nation? In guiding customers to your business?
What are the annual medical savings to US citizens by the US government paying to clean up toxic, carcinogenic, lethal, and radioactive waste dumping, emissions, and accidents from US businesses? From foreign businesses? How many birth defects are prevented by the US government paying for and conducting such cleaning ups? What is the average net present dollar value of each prevented birth defect multiplied by the total number of birth defects prevented? Cancers prevented? Debilitating conditions prevented? Deaths prevented? How much of the cost of clean-up is paid for by businesses or accounted for on their books to offset the costs incurred by the US government? What is the annual value of regulations preventing the unabated release of mercury into the air, water, and soil of America? Of lead? Asbestos? Dioxins? Polychlorinated biphenyls? Hexachlorobenzene? Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons? Triazine? CO2?
What is the dollar value to US businesses of the court system? The monetary system? The diplomatic corps? The United States Trade and Development Agency? The Small Business Administration? Disaster loans? Grants? The Census? Eminent domain for the benefit of private business? Low or royalty free leases on public lands for resource exploitation? Subsidies? The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation? The National Institute of Standards and Technology? Tariffs? Government contracts?
The point is, if someone took the time to go through all the things government has ever created, implemented, expended, given away, developed and invented, funded, and provided for free, one could reach an estimated dollar value. And it would certainly be more than the $0.00 that the Republicans and teabaggers claim. It would undoubtedly be tens and tens of trillions of dollars. In fact, it would likely be the single most valuable thing ever created by humanity - and by orders of magnitude. One could also estimate the value added, purchased, borrowed, stolen, exploited, and repackaged by US businesses of all those government creations and calculate an estimate of the financial and commercial advantage provided to US businesses and American citizens by the existence of the US government. This value too, the Republicans and teabaggers attribute entirely to the exploiting businesses rather than the government that actually created it.
Only when someone finally does this will it be apparent to the American people the actual value of the government our past generations have created and nurtured. And who better to do this than another American government institution whose value is so often overlooked - the Congressional Budget Office. In fact, why doesn't the CBO start by calculating the value the CBO adds to the American people from its own existence...
