The thing that we Swansons hate about government is that it *always* grows and *always* moves beyond its intended purpose almost immediately. So even if we could set things at that magic Roosevelt point, in a year we'd be shifted significantly to the right. This is why we make the extreme statements that we do. It's like trying to squat 900 pounds. We probably won't get there, but we may hit a more reasonable goal as a by product.
A start, but needs refinement. A government which spends tax dollars hunting down escaped slaves is different from a government which spends tax dollars building highways.
Liberty is not a pure function of amount of government. It is also a function of what the government does.
Where there is a great deal of unity, for example, socialism can provide cost savings due to economies of scale. The U.S. Postal Service was created on that principle. Some towns have "free" internet service paid via government on this principle as well. Cheaper to hook everyone up than to pay marketing expenses and worry about freeloaders using their neighbor's bandwidth.
(There are dangers in the reasoning above, of course. That free Internet service could become government surveillance, etc. But as recent history shows, private companies can get into the surveillance game as well.)
And no, this comment does not have any concrete policy recos. I'm just musing out loud.
The thing that we Swansons hate about government is that it *always* grows and *always* moves beyond its intended purpose almost immediately. So even if we could set things at that magic Roosevelt point, in a year we'd be shifted significantly to the right. This is why we make the extreme statements that we do. It's like trying to squat 900 pounds. We probably won't get there, but we may hit a more reasonable goal as a by product.
The “Ron Swanson Republicans” are the ones who gave up on squatting altogether because they realized they wouldn’t hit 900.
A start, but needs refinement. A government which spends tax dollars hunting down escaped slaves is different from a government which spends tax dollars building highways.
Liberty is not a pure function of amount of government. It is also a function of what the government does.
Where there is a great deal of unity, for example, socialism can provide cost savings due to economies of scale. The U.S. Postal Service was created on that principle. Some towns have "free" internet service paid via government on this principle as well. Cheaper to hook everyone up than to pay marketing expenses and worry about freeloaders using their neighbor's bandwidth.
(There are dangers in the reasoning above, of course. That free Internet service could become government surveillance, etc. But as recent history shows, private companies can get into the surveillance game as well.)
And no, this comment does not have any concrete policy recos. I'm just musing out loud.
I was a libertarian. I don't know what I am anymore. This issue a part of what has changed my tune.
Yeah, same.