If citizens actually had free choice in which government programs to fund as well as how much to contribute, the size of the US government (measured both in revenue and power over the people) would be 1/10 the size of today's utter monstrosity.
And if citizens literally had to cut a check at the beginning of every year, rather than pay through deliberately-obfuscated systems designed to hide the true cost of government, the size of government would be cut again by 90%.
This is an utterly stupid argument. Some level of government is necessary for collective action. The small government argument is not that there should be no central government, or that society should be so fractured that each faction has its own government and laws and otherwise lives in a state of nature with the other factions. Instead, the small government argument is that our government does too much, and has so extended its authority as to be destructive of its primary end of protecting our rights of
Unfortunately, the argument that the current federal government should be cut to 1% of its current size amounts to exactly that - no federal government. Heck, it wouldn't even be able to fund the various military branches at that level. Heck, $40 Billion won't even fund NASA and the Department of Justice. You'll fund a bit of administration, a couple of foreign embassies and a small army that is less than 1/10 of what it is now (just going by budget figures). Furthermore, lack of a central authority will re
That's assuming an equal cut. Stating that we need to reduce Federal government and including the caveats of making it do what it should be doing and stopping it from doing what it should not be doing, means that we'll be getting rid of entitlements, putting infrastructure and other projects at the State level, and leaving the defense of the country (and world) and how to pay for that at the Federal level. Certainly, we can't go back to the late 1700's and early 1800's where we figured out some things real
The point you're missing is that $40 Billion doesn't even buy you the government of a small state like Norway or Belgium. It buys you the government of a state like Vietnam. And putting things at the state level doesn't mean squat. Who suddenly pays for the much larger state budget? The same taxpayer who was paying the federal government. Except now, you're doing it with less economies of scale and less standardization.
That's a great idea to turn the US into a Banana Republic.
Well ... (Score:5, Funny)
Easy enough (Score:0, Insightful)
If citizens actually had free choice in which government programs to fund as well as how much to contribute, the size of the US government (measured both in revenue and power over the people) would be 1/10 the size of today's utter monstrosity.
And if citizens literally had to cut a check at the beginning of every year, rather than pay through deliberately-obfuscated systems designed to hide the true cost of government, the size of government would be cut again by 90%.
Too bad government isn't voluntary, or t
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Unfortunately, the argument that the current federal government should be cut to 1% of its current size amounts to exactly that - no federal government. Heck, it wouldn't even be able to fund the various military branches at that level. Heck, $40 Billion won't even fund NASA and the Department of Justice. You'll fund a bit of administration, a couple of foreign embassies and a small army that is less than 1/10 of what it is now (just going by budget figures). Furthermore, lack of a central authority will re
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The point you're missing is that $40 Billion doesn't even buy you the government of a small state like Norway or Belgium. It buys you the government of a state like Vietnam. And putting things at the state level doesn't mean squat. Who suddenly pays for the much larger state budget? The same taxpayer who was paying the federal government. Except now, you're doing it with less economies of scale and less standardization.
That's a great idea to turn the US into a Banana Republic.
Re:Easy enough (Score:2)
Only one?