One of the major divides in our country is over the role of
the government. Should it be bigger or
smaller?
The Sun-Times editorial (Slashing city spending would be
inane at a time when we need government most, April 9) makes a case for
increased government spending and involvement, but I think it exposes some of
the problems that it is trying to solve.
If government does so much good for everybody, let’s assume
the extreme case where the government runs everything, and everybody works for
the government.
The taxes that the government employees pay would cover only
a fraction of the costs of the government’s expenses. The government needs a source of revenue
outside of itself to fund it, and that is the private sector. So the government / the public sector of a
society grows at the expense of the private sector. The larger the government grows, the larger
the tax burden on the private sector, or everybody else.
But doesn’t the government provide services just like the
private sector, so that it’s really no different from somebody going to a store
and buying something there? No, because
the private sector is always working to keep its costs/expenses low, because it
is competing with other similar businesses to stay in business. Governments have no motivation or incentive
to keep costs low. In fact, governments
are far more generous in pay and benefits than the private sector. Consider the public pensions in Illinois. So anything the government does costs more
than if the private sector did it.
But the government provides a safety net for the poor and
disadvantaged. Actually that concept is
new in American history. That used to be
done by the private sector. Hundreds and
thousands of private groups, organizations, volunteering with private donations
to relieve whatever suffering or problem existed.
In the 1960s, we started government programs that replaced most
of that, and we can’t keep up paying for these, such that governments routinely
mass up enormous debt that slowly erodes the prosperity of everybody not working
for the government through higher taxes and inflation. The American spirit is also being eroded by a
sense that the government is now responsible for taking care of everybody.
But isn’t larger government the result of generations of
evolved thinking that the more advanced societies now see as the solution for
mankind’s problems?
Actually, large government has been the normal mode for
government throughout human history. It
was the American Revolution that started a new idea based on human rights given
to people by God, which called for a very limited role at least for our federal
government. It was only as Western Civilization
removed God from public life that the government assumed these responsibilities.
Are we better off overall for having done so? For now, suffice it to say that larger
government burdens the public with higher taxes, debt, and inflation and fosters
a people who look for help from the government rather than helping each other.
