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Society and Politics: The Role of Government
Posted by : bob on Sunday, September 06, 2009 - 11:24 PM
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Recently, Clint Reilly posted a message in his blog about how he came to hold his positions. The thing that struck me was that he was really co-mingling two things.
His final point in the article, which I can agree with, was "I believe strongly that government is the sole institution large and formidable enough to protect the interests of people who lack the money and power to promote their agenda." To me, that is one of government's important roles. Namely, to be a referee, defending those who cannot defend themselves, leveling the playing field to ensure balanced competition and to ensure that no one is cheating.
However, his confusion is found in an earlier statement. "... government can improve lives, drive progress and increase the odds that average people will get a fair shake."
Click for the rest of the article
The confusion is in:
- How does the government improve lives?
- How does the government drive progress?
- How does the government increase the odds that average people will get a fair shake?
Unfortunately, in the Democratic rule book, the government does all those things by becoming the biggest player in town. The Democrats complain about big business, but end up making sure that the government is the biggest business operation around.
For example, while the private sector has shed 6.9 million jobs since the beginning of the current recession, state and local governments have expanded their payrolls and added 110,000 jobs! See Government Jobs Have Grown Since Recession in the New York Times, Aug. 19, 2009.
Somehow, we need to get the government out of the business of doing everything for everyone and back into the business of acting as a referee. After all, if the government is one of the players, how can it possible act as an independent, unbiased referee?
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