I guess that all depends on who they're talking to; they lie to suit their purpose and tell the truth when it fits their needs. If you were to ask a government official, "Are UFO's real?" they would smile a paternalistic smile and maybe even roll their eyes a little and say, "No Virginia, UFO's aren't real."
Then this same government would publish a FEMA manual of procedures for firefighters on what to do if they encounter an extraterrestrial vehicle. I have checked and found no government publications on how to wrangle unicorns or control a crowd of unruly Leprechauns.
If you were to ask your government, "Who killed President Kennedy?" again the paternalistic smile, "Why, Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy from a sixth floor window with a second hand rifle with a misaligned scope."
Governments lie because they sometimes have to, or because they don't have an answer or they don't have a good answer. The government can never admit to the existence of UFO's; their job is to protect us and if they admit that there is a force that they can't protect us from then they are compromised. So denial is the best answer they've got. If you ask, "Why were pieces of the President's skull found on the trunk lid of the car and why does the Zapruder film show a blood halo exiting the back of the president's head?" you'd get the same answer. "Why, Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy from a sixth floor window with a second hand rifle with a misaligned scope."
I use these two extreme examples because what the government tells you and what they tell each other are radically different. They have a complicit media that laps it up like a kitty with a saucer of milk and then regurgitates it, knowing full well that it's all a damn lie. Iraq is a perfect example, all the choreography and casus belli for the invasion; then Tom Brokaw makes the statement, "In a few days we'll own this country."
So, each successive administration has told us that free trade is great; you're going to love it! New jobs are coming, you wait and see! Good jobs, clean, high-wage jobs, you're going to be so happy! The problems caused by Free Trade and Globalization are explained away as "Americans wouldn't do those jobs anyway."
But what is the government saying to each other; how do they train the new guys in groupthink? From the CIA Factbook,
"In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. US business firms enjoy greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, to lay off surplus workers, and to develop new products."
While you and I might think unemployment to be a bad thing your government calls it "flexibility" and considers it a competitive advantage. Your suffering be damned because it's private individuals and business firms that make most of the decisions around here.
"At the same time, they face higher barriers to enter their rivals' home markets than foreign firms face entering US markets." (CIA Factbook)
Gee, I thought we had to remove all our trade barriers because everyone else was doing it. Which, as my mother would say, is the worst reason to do anything. "If everyone was jumping off a cliff, would you?" But according to the CIA that's just not true, successive administrations have made the case for eliminating our trade tariffs, yet according to the CIA, we are alone in this thinking.
"The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a 'two-tier labor market,' in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits."
Anyone see that story in the New York Times? A two-tier labor market which those at the bottom can go eat sh*t and die. I wonder how many of us are expected to stay in that lower tier?
"Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households."
So, all men are created equal is out the window, eight in ten will labor with little hope of any improvement in their station. If I were building a prison across the street from your house and told you that someday I'll put your children in there, would you still help me haul the bricks?
"The response to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 showed the remarkable resilience of the economy. The war in March-April 2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq, and the subsequent occupation of Iraq, required major shifts in national resources to the military."
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