When
government offers a benefit, people arrange their affairs to obtain it.
Businesses replace engineers with lawyers. The advantage to those who receive the
benefit is obvious and great, while the cost to each taxpayers
is hidden and insignificant. The
dynamics facilitate government growth.
When
government is big, the rich gain wealth faster than the poor, because the rich induce
the government to help them. The bigger the government, the greater the gap
between rich and poor.
Here are the
duties that our governments, including the courts, should perform:
Protect private property and individual
liberty
Adjudicate lawsuits and enforce contracts
Keep people from directly hurting others
by force or fraud (the police power)
Set and enforce immigration policies
Defend the nation
With
government limited to the above, the poor would gain wealth faster than the
rich, and little poverty would remain.
Government
is force. When the force extends beyond government’s proper bounds, the actual,
long-run results are opposite to the intended results. Policies intended to
help the poor cause poverty instead.
The
federal government’s economic policies have been especially damaging. It should
stop trying to influence the economy and allow others to create money.
Government
at all levels should educate no one.
Government’s
accumulation of statistics stimulates its damaging intrusions. Let others gather
statistics.
Society’s
needs other than those satisfied by government’s proper duties should be
fulfilled by private parties operating for profit or by associations of those
who care. Competition among them minimizes costs. With government backed off, the
more needs that arise, the more people would come forward to meet them.
