Question #3: What is the proper role of government?

June 6, 2008 by Stephen Palmer 

| 10 Foundational Questions | Introduction | Question #1 | Question #2 |

TyrannyAccording to the American Founders, the proper role of government is to protect unalienable rights. The government cannot rightfully do anything that an individual cannot rightfully do. In other words, if it is wrong for an individual to steal another’s property, then it is wrong for the government to do the same thing. As Cleon Skousen put it in The 5,000 Year Leap, the government should protect equal rights–not provide equal things.

Competing views include, but are not limited to, that the role of government is to distribute all things equally (communism), the role of the government is to take care of its subjects (democratic socialism), the role of the government is to expand its empire (martial societies), the role of the government is to “help the little guy” (democracy), and the role of the government is to promote the interests of “big business” (capitalism).

Why It Matters

By definition, government is force. Behind every government policy is a gun to the heads of citizens saying, “You will do this, or else…” Therefore, anything other than the philosophy that the proper role of government is to protect unalienable rights always has and always will lead to tyranny.

The more government tries to “help” society, the more tyrannical it becomes. Since the government does not produce, it can only take what others has produced to fulfill its aims. If it wants to provide welfare, it cannot do so without taking from one person or group of people to give to another. And since government is force, this is, as Frederic Bastiat said, “legal plunder.”

Question: Ideally, how, or by whom, should the poor and disabled be helped, if necessary?

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Comments

One Response to “Question #3: What is the proper role of government?”

  1. pks on June 8th, 2008 7:40 am

    Question: Ideally, how, or by whom, should the poor and disabled be helped, if necessary?

    Answer: Before the American state and federal governments decided to become the primary helpers of the poor and disabled, needy people who received help were cared for at the local level by:
    * their family (which was not as dispersed as it is today);
    * by their neighbors (who actually knew them, unlike today);
    * by their church members;
    * or by local charities and “societies” that had a mission to raise funds to help the needy.

    I prefer that arrangement, since it puts the helpers in touch with the helped. Today, people are “helped” by anonymous government bureaucrats who never meet their beneficiaries. When taxpayers are forced to “give” to people, the decisions on distribution are mediated by bureaucrats, and taxpayers sometimes feel like they’re being forced to support something they’d prefer not to. In fact, it makes them less likely to be charitable at the local level, since they’ve been forced to “give” via taxation, and they feel like they’ve done their part already — since there may not be much money left over.

    If society was set up differently, with a focus on opportunity, I believe that people would prosper more broadly, there would be less poverty, and those who prosper would be more inclined to give support at the local level — for causes that they truly believe in. They would be giving with a merry heart, not reluctantly.

    – Paul

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