The Role Of Government
Since I hold myself out as a libertarian of the non-moonbat variety, people ask me what the hell the means. What do I think is the role of government? It’s pretty easy, really. It’s spelled out in the Constitution.
Provide for our defense: It is arguable that we go a little too far on this one some of the time. But, honestly, better to over do it than not do enough.
Regulate commerce: Remember, the government is why you don’t pay 30% interest on your mortgage. Sadly, the powers-that-be like to call everything commerce and regulate the crap out of it (abortion, anyone?). This, however, is not free reign for some USDA bureaucrat to tell some guy how many acres of soy beans he can grow and what price he can sell it at. That is, pure and simple, socialism.
Establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility: We need laws. We need those laws enforced. We need recourse for violation of contracts, for example. We need police.
Promote the general welfare: This is the one that is subject to the most disagreement. What is the general welfare? Fire department, police, roads, education, etc.?
I think certain things should never happen in a country like America:
No one in this country should starve to death.
No one in this country should go without health care (Note to John Kerry: When you say 43 million people go without health care, you’re fibbing. 43 million people go without insurance. That’s what you meant to say, right?).
No one in this country should be denied basic education. The current system is in dire need of reform but it doesn’t do too bad a job. I went to public schools and I turned out OK.
In my opinion, it is in the interest of the general welfare that people are healthy, educated and not malnourished. I’m weird like that. Unfortunately, our government would rather provide specific welfare for certain groups:
-$50,000,000 added in conference for an indoor rain forrest in Coralville, Iowa (Sic);
-$1,000,000 added by the Senate for the Alaska SeaLife Center;
-$653,000 added by the Senate to study rainbow trout at the University of Idaho’s Hagerman Fish Culture Experiment Station in Aberdeen;
Does NASA provide for the general welfare? I’d say we could build something really cool for the price of NASA, like a national rail system or, you know, a kick-ass water park. Does the Department of the Interior? Etc.
Some governmental departments do provide for the general welfare but tend to go too far. The SEC should be good check on market manipulation and financial fraud. The EPA should be a good check on keeping our air and water clean. However, wetland management is an abysmal affront to liberty. If the government wants to maintain wetlands, it should buy some. It shouldn’t tell some guy that a small, insignificant stream will result in the same guy not being able to do with his property as he chooses.
I’m not an anti-government ideologue. I recognize that the government plays an important role. However, it has gotten to the point that the role it plays is too big. It needs to be reminded of that.
June 7th, 2004 at 12:37 pm
The U.S. Constitution (not the preamble) spells out the legitimate, enumerated functions of the federal government. Apart from a few specific prohibitions, it is silent as to the legitimate functions of state and local government.
June 7th, 2004 at 12:54 pm
Uncle:
It shouldn’t tell some guy that a small, insignificant stream will result in the same guy not being able to do with his property as he chooses.
Depends how you define “insignificant,” I guess. There are a bunch of “insignificant” little streams up in Minnesota that wind up dumping into the Gulf of Mexico in a fairly significant manner…
June 7th, 2004 at 12:56 pm
Remember, the government is why you don’t pay 30% interest on your mortgage.
But… but… I thought free trade and “let[ting] the market decide” would do an even better job of this! You mean it’s not true? Say it ain’t so!
*ducks*
June 7th, 2004 at 3:00 pm
The governmnet is empowered to regulate interstate trade for the purposes of _encouraging_ commerce. To often now a days, the government uses this as an excuse to block commerce.
June 7th, 2004 at 3:16 pm
The governmnet is empowered to regulate interstate trade for the purposes of _encouraging_ commerce.
According to…?
To [sic] often now a days, the government uses this as an excuse to block commerce.
This explains why our society is now far less commercially-driven now than it was, say, 100 or 50 or even 20 years ago. Right?
June 7th, 2004 at 11:45 pm
>According to…?
James Madison, for one. (See Federalist 42)
June 8th, 2004 at 12:31 am
That’s funny, because I don’t see anything about encouraging commerce there in the little constitution thingy. There may be subsequent court precedent concerning this, but I don’t see anything there other than just “regulate commerce.”
June 8th, 2004 at 8:23 am
My opinion of the “regulate interstate commerce” bit is that regulate there has the same meaning it does with respect to the “well-regulated militia.” That is, it does NOT mean the Congress has the power to smother interstate commerce with rules; instead it means that the Congress is to ensure that interstate commerce [i]functions properly[/i].
Personally, I think they meant that the Congress should prevent any [i]obstacles[/i] to the operation of interstate commerce, such as a State attempting to block trade with another State, but I don’t have any support for this argument.
On the larger issue of the role of government, I side with Matthew at TriggerFinger (one of the trackback links) that it’s wrong to assume “that government can provide what you want it to provide, but not also provide what some others want it to provide, without making a clear differentiation between those two requests.”
June 7th, 2004 at 5:34 pm
Libertarians in the Swamps
Say Uncle, a self-declared libertarian has outlined his views on the role of government. I consider myself libertarian-leaning, but I don’t claim the label the way he does, and I see his list of approved roles of government as a good start to a governm…
June 7th, 2004 at 10:38 pm
The Role of Libertarian Government
The Role of Libertarian Government