How much government is enough?
Radley Balko, over at The Agitator blog, asks a Lefty (from her response, I consider her an Authoritarian) what the maximum size of government is that she would find acceptable. A pertinent question for times such as these when we have so many on the Left crying for more taxes.
Citizen Jane, the Authoritarian blogger who tries to answer the question, doesn't answer it. She just replies that we should place our faith in government and its bureaucrats because they know what is best for us.
So, lets see what readers of this blog think of government in our country today. Do we have too much, or not enough?
Addendum: Radley Balko pointed me to this blog that has a more reasoned answer from a progressive/ lefty point of view. Nicely written, I thought.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 8:14 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Fred,if you didn't see something good in government and excessive bureaucracy than you wouldn't support such things as the Richardson Grove realignment.I know a lady who works up here for Caltrans who told me the prime reason she needs the project to go through is that it alone guarantees her an $80,000 a year salary covering the next two years.
I don't know that I'd tie the Richardson Grove realignment and the question of how much government we should have into the same question. I support the realignment. Maybe a government agency isn't the best entity to accomplish that, but they're the only ones that will do it.
It will be much more expensive than it probably should be. What should we do about that? Wait for 50 years until we can spend even more money on a bypass?
I can't really answer that survey, because I don't know how to measure the current size of our government and I don't have a baseline or benchmark for an ideal size. I DO know why (willingly, with no resentment) I pay taxes:
to keep our cities, towns, homes, safe, secure, and clean; to provide for the common good things (like roads) that private enterprise would find a temptation to corruption or abuse; to educate and protect our future generations of citizens; to help the poor, the weak, the infirm, the disabled, the children, the elderly, the hungry, all those who are unable to advocate or care for themselves; to protect the resources we share so that all can benefit from clean air, clean water; to regulate commerce so that no one is cheated and so that everything is uniform across state lines, etc. I think you get my drift, I could go on a lot longer. This is the Problem I have with so-called "limited government" advocates. Who will they throw out into the snow to die? And, after that, who gets thrown out next? When will it be your turn? What happens to us after the muggy bottom spotted frilled salamander goes extinct? Maybe not much, but what's next to go extinct? At some point it will hit close to home, and then see everybody cry for government assistance.
too bad every cent collected in taxes, services debt to offshore banks- none of what you pay goes to help your community.
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