It’s easy to criticize Gov. Jim Gibbons for his budget, and with a down-and-diving-deeper economy, his realistic proposals are met with howls of protest; he is gutting “essential” government agencies.

Somehow, while everyone in the private sector is dramatically cutting back, government expects the gravy train to continue.

Take education for example. More than 50 percent of the state’s taxes go to fund “free” government schools. Politicians who unquestioningly quote the holy grail of “education needs more money” are hailed as “friends of education,” while those who actually do the math and wonder if we are really getting much bang for our buck are “against the children.”

Perhaps the most remarkable dollar comparison is how government and the private sector spend money.

In the private world, success attracts capital. Businesses that make money, have happy customers and are on “the cutting edge” of modern technology have rising value and investors seek them and bankers gladly loan. Success builds on success. Failure or apathy causes the opposite. Investors and customers go elsewhere. “Improve or die” forces reforms driven by the constant innovations of your competitors.

Compare that to education. The more a school or school district fails, the more money is thrown its way. “At-risk” schools are top priority, while the schools that do well get secondary concerns. “We need more money” is always the answer and, when the money comes in and the results don’t change, “not enough money” is the standard scapegoat.

“Teachers are underpaid” is another standard chant endlessly repeated. But how do we know? Undoubtedly some are grossly underpaid, while some are incompetent and not worthy of minimum wage.

Wages and pay in the real world are based on performance and productivity. The greater value you prove yourself to have in the marketplace, the higher your wages or salary.

Yet, attempts to promote some semblance of a competitive scale, “merit pay,” have been bitterly fought by teachers unions. Like all monopolies, change is resisted.

This is especially unfair to those superior teachers who excel; it discourages innovation; it fails to weed out the incompetent and lazy; it encourages an acceptance of lowest common denominator standards; and it lowers the quality of the educations our children receive. Those politicians branded as “friends of education” are anything but. They are the “yes” men for the unions, and are the enemies of the very children they claim to care so deeply about.

Politicians pontificate, but you must judge their actions. Despite spending more per pupil than any other district in America, President Obama does not send his privileged daughters to the Washington, D.C. public schools. Why not give all such options through vouchers? (The D.C. school district is also the lowest-rated in the nation, a giant hole in the claim money is the answer.)

Oh no, “vouchers” would “destroy” public schools — a tacit admission, an unspoken truth, that children and their parents would gladly go elsewhere if given the opportunity. If public schools are doing so great, why this mortal dread of competition?

Hey, come to think of it, since socialized education has been such a whopping success, why not socialize health care while we’re at it?

As the “private” doctors recently clamoring against cuts in Medicaid payments indirectly point out, we already have nationalized health care. The government is already heavily involved, and the supposedly “smaller government” believing Republican controlled House, Senate and White House gladly added a “subscription drug benefit” to buy senior votes. In short, we are already there; the tiny vestiges of pre-1964 American health care, once the envy of the world, will soon gasp its last free breath.

What we really need next is to have the government take over the ridiculously under-regulated food distribution sector. Why have Raleys, Scolaris, Sav-Mart, Winco, Costco, etc., when you can have one highly efficient government store for everything?

Heck, if it’s good enough for educating millions of children, why not have the government feed us too? I recall pictures of all those smiling happy faces, standing in lines winding around the store, waiting for bread in the government supermarket in the workers paradise of Moscow.

If competition is bad for education, why would we see it as good in grocery stores?

Ira Hansen is a lifelong resident of Sparks and owner of Ira Hansen and Sons Plumbing.