A recent reading of Robert Ringer’s “Restoring the American Dream” got me to thinking about what I really want from a government. In a vein not unlike Ayn Rand’s thinking, I believe that governmental functions should boil down to three high level elements:
- Provide for the protection of the lives and property of citizens
- Provide for a system of arbitrating contractual disputes
- Provide for a national defense
These three elements form the foundation of real freedom, although not a free lunch, for all of a government’s citizens. If this foundation is deemed reasonable, then what steps can we take to rebuild our government upon that foundation?
Ringer suggests eight steps that I believe are worthy of serious debate.
- Political leaders should be held to one term and only one term.
- Income taxes should be phased out completely for all citizens over the next 25 years or so.
- No new money programs beyond current level replacement spending should be allowed. Eliminating deficits eliminates the need for money supply inflation.
- Redistribution of wealth functions need to be eliminated; some in the short term and some over the long term. This includes the elimination of many governmental services which should become part of the non-governmental economy over a sufficiently lengthy window of time.
- Supply and demand should be allowed to rein.
- Most governmental property should be sold and the proceeds used to pay off the national debt. Did you know that the Government owns approximately 30% of all our Nation’s land including 98% of Alaska and 86% of Nevada?
- Repeal all victimless crime laws and release and pardon those currently imprisoned for the same.
- Stop interference in the affairs of other nations; including foreign aid spending.
If the above doesn’t stoke some powerful thinking, try these nuggets:
- Property rights and human rights cannot be separated
- Capitalism has not failed, rather capitalism burdened by government intervention has failed
- Forced equality means a loss of freedom by definition
- Equal opportunity and equality are two very different things
To close for now, ponder Thoreau’s words “that government is best which governs not at all”.
Till next time… all the best.
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