Why small government is better
I have written extensively about what I see as the greatest need in America today: renewing limited government. Why? Because the strength and prosperity of free people around the world depend on the limited government of the USA. The more the government grows, the more the economy shrinks, taking with it the freedom, prosperity and strength of all free nations.
As we have seen dramatically on the global economic stage in recent years, big government socialism does not work. The iconic former UK Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher once pointed out that the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money. Unfortunately, for the last twenty years (with great acceleration in the last three), the US federal government has been operating as if that weren’t the case… when they know Maggie was right.
As Europe consolidated and its member nations accelerated the growth of their socialist big-government states, they set foot on a path of inevitable disaster. Struggling economies in places like Greece and Spain, thinking their losses would be covered by the European Central Bank and the stronger economies in the union, spent heavily on benefits and squandering “green jobs.” Sounds familiar? The collapse of those economies, and the street violence that accompanies it, should be dramatic teaching moments that drive home the lesson of the venerable Mrs Thatcher.
George W. Bush was heavily criticized for racking up more US government debt than all previous presidents combined. However, Barack Obama has left him in the dust, debt-wise, making Bush just another president in the long line of past presidents, all of whom together failed to handle the massive spending spree that has characterized the administration. of Obama.
And how has that worked? The US economy is now on life support and can no longer effectively bail out socialist governments abroad. As the United States falls more and more into the trap of its own creation and begins to “print” more and more money to pretend to cover its (and the world’s) deficits, the problems will only accelerate. Experts say a global crisis is looming and things will get much worse before they get better. If you haven’t already taken steps to protect your income and wealth (start a business, invest in precious metals, learn about the global conspiracy against private wealth), now is the time.
Now is also the time, urgently, to renew limited government in America. The nation’s founders would have been appalled by the unbridled growth of the federal government after more than a century of “progressive” statism. As Maggie Thatcher’s contemporary Ronald Reagan said, government is not the solution to our problem: government IS the problem. The good news is that we will eventually find our way back to strength and prosperity, but that will only happen after we do the one thing that will truly grow the economy: reduce government.
Limit legislators to finite terms and pithy bills that require them to debate and vote every fifty or more pages. Limit the amount of money the government can tax out of the economy, the amount it can spend, and the amount it can borrow… tie those limits to the growth and strength of the private sector. Limit bureaucracies in terms of how many government workers they can hire and how many pages of regulation they can enact to anchor the economy.
Even in what I call the semi-private sector, where institutions have grown to do government bidding without running for election, limits are needed. Limit the lawyers: no more ridiculous punitive damage settlements with lots of money. Limit unions: tie to their company’s profit margin how much money they can raise, and how much they can use to “buy” politicians and legislation. Limit the academic “statist factory”: make professors reapply for tenure every five or six years. And cap the Federal Reserve: audit this non-federal reserve, often, and force it to peg the currency once again to precious metals lest inflation ruin the nation.
The Founders believed that the best government is the one that governs the least… and they were right. Small government is better than big government…for only when power truly rests with free people is strength and prosperity truly possible. “Wealth”, in a socialist or collectivist society, is consolidated in the hands of the powerful central government. Any wealth left to the private citizenry is always an illusion.
The smaller the government, the bigger the economy.
by Michael D. Hume, M.S.