I'm not sure if this is the thread for it, but I'm trying to understand the political situation in the US (and world) on a grander scale lately because it seems that my view is a pretty narrow one. A buddy of mine from AZ is very anti government and i've been communicating with him on facebook on the subject, this is a message he sent me last night, let me know what you guys think...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Sam, sorry I didn't get back to you before. Until a few months ago I viewed government as a necessary evil, and I believed that we needed it for the rule of law. For this discussion when I refer to “The State” I am not referring to any state in particular, but to the group who is in power and chooses to exercise their will on the general population, be it Federal, State or local.
Firstly, the concept of “The State” is diametrically opposed to the concept of the individual. “The State” is an illusion of “group will” created by democracy, itself a bastardized and unstable form of government. Those who seek power simply convince the people that they should vote for the horse whom the rich and powerful special interests put in the race. They do this by using their money (be it corporate or private) to fund multi-million dollar advertising campaigns. Once the “representatives” are elected, they do the will of their master, forcibly taking money from the productive people working efficiently in the private sector and giving it to those unproductive special interests for whom they work. Our entire Senate is filled with racehorses of this type, all serving the will of special interest groups rather than preserving the best interests of the individual. The banking system is a perfect example, and we see the effect it has had. The dollar is collapsing and the government, rather than cutting spending is taking spending to new levels, further undermining the stability of the US dollar.
On a side note, I would be very interested to hear your perspective on this based on what the people in Korea are saying. I know that Asia is in charge now, they have all the productivity and we have nothing but little green pieces of paper. Real power is always the power to produce.
This is not how our republic was designed to run, we vote too much and so it is the popular face with the advertising dollars who assumes the position of power.
Secondly, we must examine the nature of government. Government necessarily consumes more than it produces, because it produces nothing (with the exception of the now state owned GM, the first example of which I am aware of the Federal Government assuming possession of the means of production, which is by definition communism). The reason for this is simple inefficiency. In the private sector prices are set based on the value a particular good or service is worth to an individual. In government, revenues are extracted by force from the individuals, assigned to projects that will never produce anything (by bureaucrats), and lost in a tale of inefficiency with too many long and sad examples to need my explanation (if the acronym DMV still sounds familiar).
Because we have a society which has become so dependent on the nanny state, there would be a great deal of commotion caused by eliminating government from the current system. For example, if we suddenly fired all the cops, there would be a period of time in which “crime” (as defined by the state) would go up. Since the police spend most of their time committing the crimes of a police state (taking private funds by force and using them to chase down people who have done nothing to hurt anyone else) rather than protecting individual liberty and protecting personal property rights, the period of time which followed the elimination of the police force would necessarily incur an increase in some crimes. Theft and Vandalism would probably go up, but suddenly crimes that hurt nobody would be utterly meaningless. The revenues paid to police forces (extorted by the state with the threat of prison time if you don't pay) would be kept in the productive private sector. This is a huge decrease in theft which would result instantly from the abolition of police forces.
Currently the upper class is involved in a war waged against the middle class using the State as their army. They over tax and over regulate the middle class and upcoming small businesses in order to gain special privilege and maintain the status quo.
If we did not have public police, what we would have is HOA's which offered private security to deter theft, and we would have private detectives to investigate crimes. While vigilante justice may sound a little wild west, assuredly it would cause less harm and less death than the “mob rule” of Democracy and the attempts of the state to control the individuals and the economy. Prosperity would skyrocket, and sites like Yelp and Amazon would take the place of government regulations. Investment would be done using the principles of logic rather than having faith in the FDIC, which can only create inflation. Government has done only harm for this country, but they call it good and the sheeple listen.
It is never in an individuals own economic best interest to go to war. For this reason the freedom of the individual and it's associated Lassiez Faire system are the only means to producing a nation free from the huge cost associated with war. If attacked, the private citizens would arm themselves and defend themselves against invasion. If left alone, they would continue to prosper at a rate unheard of in highly regulated economies such as the one we have now. We experienced this to a much greater degree in the late 1800's and early 1900's, up until the Federal Reserve was implemented, excessive government controls were instituted and our boom and bust economy was born, running faster than its feet due to inflation and then toppling over in a fit of disappearing money.
The bottom line is, the government is collapsing under it's own weight. All government necessarily grows parasitically, smothering the efficient and productive private sector economy which tries to keep it afloat. We have a closed system with only two parties. This is nothing but the illusion of choice.
There may be an ideal of small government and minimal regulation, in any event the current system is not this ideal, and that is why the laboring masses in the private sector economy can no longer support the millions of inefficient, zero production government workers.
For further info, Ayn Rand has written extensively on the subject and I find her views to be in line with my own 95% of the time.
The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights: "The Nature of Government", by Ayn Rand