Response to discussion board : “The question you should answer is: do you think government is too big, too small, or just the right size? (Any attempt to evade this question should be interpreted as "just the right size.")”

Big Government vs. Small Government misses the point, few things in life are that simple. There is no net quantity of government that can be added and subtracted to create some perfect proportion, government is tied into many different things and its role must be balanced across a complicated spectrum of issues. This is a whole can of worms that I’m not sure I want to get into but here goes.

Government is accountable to the people, corporations and private individuals are not, especially those with an excess of power and money. If you reduce the role of government in a particular area, that which governs your life will be shifted to private for profit interests, as opposed to our public representatives. This is good in some cases and not in others.

If this were a black and white issue where one could choose to have their life governed by either A) publicly accountable government officials or B) unaccountable private interests - who in their right mind would choose to simply trust whoever happened to be born into power to be the best decision maker? If government began to just get smaller, the power to direct society would be quickly concentrated in the hands of a few superrich individuals who’s position in society is insurmountable.

Anyone who is thinking that this is an attempt to evade the question is truly stubborn and hasn’t actually comprehended a word I have said so far.

Government’s role is to make life as enjoyable as possible for everyone in society, it is a noble purpose and if it is not being done there needs to be a change, but simply kicking it out of the drivers seat is not a solution.

Governmental policies should be directed toward helping entrepreneurs, small businesses, and the middle class, this is where that lovely free-market competition really occurs. Bailing out large corporations is a waste, if they fail it is their own fault and a better alternative will take their place. Also those corporations should be prevented from getting excessively powerful and therefore being able to threaten the independence of individuals in society (what is ‘excessively powerful’ will be forever debated and revised, of course).

On the other hand the barriers to starting and maintaining a business such as taxes and red tape should be as low as possible. People want to chart their own course in the world and they want to be able to build something they can be proud of, in this way entrepreneurs and small businesses are very important in regards to making life enjoyable.

I think the knee jerk reaction against government is due to the fact that we’ve seen it perform badly. Again changes must be made and it is our government and our responsibility to change it.
My final thought is that, perhaps government has preformed badly because it has surrendered its power to private for profit interests. Perhaps government is unable to do a good job because it is now influenced by those interests that we expect it to hold back. I say change the structure to get the influence of money away from government. It should be an environment where the interests of citizens are the first priority, not the interest of politicians or parties.

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