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On government

Political ·Thursday May 8, 2008 @ 00:07 EDT (link)

The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man’s self-defense, and, as such, may resort to force only against those who start the use of force. The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law. But a government that initiates the employment of force against men who had forced no one, the employment of armed compulsion against disarmed victims, is a nightmare infernal machine designed to annihilate morality: such a government reverses its only moral purpose and switches from the role of protector to the role of man’s deadliest enemy, from the role of policeman to the role of a criminal vested with the right to the wielding of violence against victims deprived of the right of self-defense. Such a government substitutes for morality the following rule of social conduct: you may do whatever you please to your neighbor, provided your gang is bigger than his.

—From John Galt's speech, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

My views on government, specifically, in the U.S., after having experienced it for some time are that it's too big (contrary to the small government envisioned by the founding fathers and provided by the Constitution), it's getting too socialist (free handouts for everything, and then we're supposed to be happy because they give $600 back?), and it takes too much of my money (as taxes) by threat of force (try not being a rich and famous movie star and not paying your taxes).

(Similar Rand quotes on government from Anthem.)
I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire. For in the temple of his spirit, each man is alone. Let each man keep his temple untouched and undefiled. Then let him join hands with others if he wishes, but only beyond his holy threshold.

For the word "We" must never be spoken, save by one's choice and as a second thought. This word must never be placed first within man's soul, else it becomes a monster, the root of all the evils on earth, the root of man's torture by men, and of an unspeakable lie. The word "We" is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it. It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages. What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it? What is my wisdom, if even the fools can dictate to me? What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and the impotent, are my masters? What is my life, if I am but to bow, to agree and to obey?

But I am done with this creed of corruption. I am done with the monster of "We," the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame. And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: "I."
—From Anthem, Ayn Rand

There are many more Ayn Rand quotes on government from an Objectivist viewpoint.

I think these sum up the failings of government well (failings that would be reduced by a minimal, libertarian-style government):

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. (George Bernard Shaw)

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. (G. Gordon Liddy)

(Here are some more from the Conservatives and Libertarians at MS list on March 24.)
I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. (Winston Churchill)

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. (James Bovard)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. (Douglas Casey)

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. (P.J. O'Rourke)

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. (Frederic Bastiat)

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! (P.J. O'Rourke)

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. (Voltaire)

No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. (Mark Twain)

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. (Ronald Reagan)

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. (Winston Churchill)

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. (Herbert Spencer)

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. (Edward Langley)

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. (Thomas Jefferson)

People like to argue about government spending—on what should the tax money taken from the working citizens be spent? Usually the answer is "votes", that is, pandering, by providing "free" services: welfare, medical care, subsidies, etc. Naturally, this meddling in the free market disrupts the economy in various ways: welfare can reduce incentives to work and increase dependence on government (as planned) and reduce dependence on neighbors, neighborhood groups, and especially churches, which the left hates with a (holy?) passion; medical care, see Canada, where people are flocking to the U.S. in droves so they don't expire while waiting for necessary tests and procedures, and subsidies, well, do I need to explain how paying people not to grow food is counterproductive (yes, that's a subsidy: the payment is ultimately to reduce supply)?

But the question should be, as I said in my letter, what to spend the money pillaged from working citizens on, but whether to spend it at all, rather than returning it, reducing taxes, cutting departments, and treating people like adults rather than trying to make them dependent on daddy government. Ron Paul was off to a good start in one of the debates this year: when asked about programs he'd cut, he quickly rattled off three departments that he'd like to see removed. The government is a monster, and a self-perpetuating one: if less money is used than allocated, future budgets are cut, so each group attempts to spend as much as it can, with no incentive to cut anything back, because government unions and discrimination laws make government employees hard to fire, pork-barreling trades jobs for favors, and every petty bureaucrat (all the way up to the House and Senate) attempts to expand their fiefdom and powers—with no requirement to turn a profit, or even break even: shortages? just borrow or print more money.

Argh. How can government be reduced? It doesn't seem possible: the members are disincentivized to help; every person wants their share of largesse from the public treasury. I asked this question on the Conservatives and Libertarians at Microsoft, and someone sent back the old cliché:
There are four boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.
True (and make no mistake: money is power, and power is liberty), but I was hoping for something more specifically local. Is Tyler right, is it too late?

How you can help: when you vote, vote for politicians that want to reduce taxes, that want to cut back, even if you may lose benefits in the short term. Those benefits are stolen from the labor of others, and were never yours to begin with. Declare yourself an adult, not a child. Reclaim your freedom as an American.

Books finished: The Essential Calvin and Hobbes, Professional SQL Server 2005 Programming.