What is our major malfunction?

One of the biggest problems facing America, and possibly the root of all of the political problems, is our reliance on government. Whenever something bad happens, the immediate response from the people is, "the government has to do something." For instance, when a bridge collapsed earlier this year, people expected the government to do something. When hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, people looked to the government to fix the problem.
This attitude causes a number of problems. Reagan said, "government is not the solution, government is the problem." He knew that when the government gets involved in something, it inevitably becomes less efficient and less effective. So, as we continue to invite the government into new areas of our lives, things begin to be much less efficient. While you may say we can handle a little less efficiency, if you take a look at communist countries of the past, you will see that the government's inefficiency will effectively bankrupt a country. It's much easier to move toward socialism than away from it. It's like a black hole. As we become more socialist, we will have problems, like those that we may soon see in government provided health care. The government will be expected to fix these problems, and more money and effort will be thrown at them, regulating even more, actually worsening the problems.
When we invite the government to act to fix problems like bridge collapses, we create a problem that may not actually exist. For example, I only know of one major bridge collapse that was not caused by external forces. So, if one collapses every 20 years or so, is that a problem? No! There is inherent risk in everything. It is not possible to build structures without the possibility of failure. If one uses infrastructure, one needs to accept the risks involved. So, for the government to spend money making the bridges safer is not necessarily a responsible way to spend my money.
When we ask the government to intervene, especially in time of a disaster, rather than encouraging responsible solutions, we encourage a race, and whoever can produce the first bill throwing money at the problem wins free publicity, catapulting them higher up the political food chain. This just helps hide the real issues; instead of defending why they voted to send more money to fund a war they disagree with, they can say they do care, just look at how much money they spent saving the people.

Today, I saw an interview of a professor of political science at Columbia University. He stated that it would be irresponsible to have a government that allowed people to take care of themselves. He said today, people won't take care of themselves, so we can't have a government like we did yesterday. Well, I have a little more faith in people than that. I know that if we get away from our reliance on the government, we will all step up to the plate and start producing, and our children will learn about self-reliance, rather than becoming sponges on society.