Difference between revisions of "User:Woozle/positions/2013/government"

Revision as of 19:15, 20 August 2012

In General

"Small Government"

While there is certainly a lot of bloat an inefficiency in most governments, you can't just get rid of that by reducing government revenues.
While government can be oppressive, cutting government revenues will not get rid of that either. It will just reduce the quality of service, leading to more oppressiveness (because oppression is cheaper to provide than fairness).
/prostitution metaphor: government is a pimp, and we are the hookers

United States

The Constitution

The founding fathers had a design goal with regard to US government.
The expression of that design goal is primarily in the form of the Constitution. (Supplementary documentation includes the Declaration of Indepenence, the Federalist Papers, private letters, and so forth.)
The design goals included personal liberty for all stakeholders
That particular design goal is no longer being met.?

(Originally posted here as a comment; access limited, unfortunately.)

Federal budget

Off the top of my head, here's how I would classify a few federal programs:

unnecessary; kill them

foreign wars
overseas military bases
fossil fuel subsidies
TSA
DHS
domestic spying, especially warrantless

of dubious value; re-examine carefully

farm subsidies (especially for large operations)
CIA needs to be cleaned out and downsized
FBI: useful core, but lots of corruption
NSA

necessary, but implementation may be suboptimal

Medicaid / Medicare / Social Security
scientific research
NASA / space exploration
environmental regulatory agencies (EPA & others)
safety regulatory agencies
FCC (needs to be de-coupled from industry influence)
USPS (would currently be profitable if not for new retirement funding requirements)

expansion of service needed

In general, social support systems need to be expanded -- mostly because of jobsolescence. I support the idea of finding non-governmental ways of providing these services, but those alternative methods must be reliable (I do not consider present government programs to meet this qualification).

It has been suggested that if government were to simply back off in this sector, private charity would "take up the slack"; I think history shows this not to be the case. There would be a significant uptick in private charitable contributions, but it wouldn't come anywhere near making up for the loss of existing government programs (as pathetic and patchy as they are). We would essentially be recreating Victorian London -- and anyone who finds that a pleasant prospect needs their head examined.

A few specific services that need to be expanded:

healthcare, especially preventive medicine
mental healthcare -- everything from voluntary outpatient to involuntary institutional
everyone needs to have a minimum living wage and adequate housing
education -- especially K-12
- ...and it needs to be understood that creationism is fiction
environmental and safety monitoring and data-gathering
enforcement of anti-pollution and safety rules
informational compilations and data feeds of all types (environmental, socioeconomic, financial, science...)

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==United States==
+===The Constitution===
+* The founding fathers had a design goal with regard to US government.
+* The expression of that design goal is primarily in the form of the [[US Constitution|Constitution]]. (Supplementary documentation includes the Declaration of Indepenence, the Federalist Papers, private letters, and so forth.)
+* The design goals included personal liberty for all stakeholders
+* That particular design goal is no longer being met.?
+(Originally posted [https://plus.google.com/u/0/104029794170508855321/posts/WDyTccBMnPS here] as a comment; access limited, unfortunately.)
+===Federal budget===
 Off the top of my head, here's how I would classify a few federal programs:
+====unnecessary; kill them====
-===unnecessary; kill them===
 * foreign wars
 * overseas military bases
@@ Line 18: / Line 25: @@
 * domestic spying, especially warrantless
-===of dubious value; re-examine carefully===
+====of dubious value; re-examine carefully====
 * farm subsidies (especially for large operations)
 * [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] needs to be cleaned out and downsized
 * [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]: useful core, but lots of corruption
 * [[National Security Administration|NSA]]
+====necessary, but implementation may be suboptimal====
-===necessary, but implementation may be suboptimal===
 * Medicaid / Medicare / Social Security
 * scientific research
@@ Line 32: / Line 38: @@
 * FCC (needs to be de-coupled from industry influence)
 * USPS (would currently be profitable if not for new retirement funding requirements)
+====expansion of service needed====
-===expansion of service needed===
 In general, social support systems need to be expanded -- mostly because of [[jobsolescence]]. I support the idea of finding non-governmental ways of providing these services, but those alternative methods must be '''reliable''' (I do not consider present government programs to meet this qualification).