Something I often hear, when I’m discussing whatever hot contemporary topic of the day, is that government (usually the Federal Government) needs to create some new bureaucratic agency or department, or law to deal with some issue. This always perplexes me, as most governments, especially the United States Federal Government, is extraordinarily large, and holds plenty of legal powers. The Federal Government is so large, that auditing agencies such as the Department of Defense, is borderline impossible. Even more troubling, is that even the Federal Government doesn’t seem to know how many government agencies exist. Even figuring out how many US Codes exist is a seemingly Byzantine task, as there are quite literally hundreds of thousands.
The Federal Government alone collects trillions of dollars in taxes, spends trillions of dollars in taxes, and has the single largest workforce in human history. It has more capital (as in actual usable assets), and the supreme power of the monopoly on violence (in order to enforce justice, the original purpose of government). I honestly cannot think of a single situation where the federal government could not intervene in some capacity, as we have given it almost unlimited leeway to incur or interfere into virtually all facets of our lives. We more or less allow it to spy on us, to search us or our personal property, to detain or arrest us or our property, to tax us, and so on. It honestly surprises me that we have any liberty left, which I suppose is a testament to the strength of our constitution.
What people seemingly want is for either a dictator, or perhaps even God, to come in, and unilaterally solve whatever issue the person is talking about, ignoring all rights and liberty of anyone involved. This is troubling, as our system of government is built on compromise, and respecting each others rights and liberties. I do not want my house searched, even if I did nothing wrong, because I believe in privacy. I do not want the government to tax all of my earnings, and “return” it in the form of government entitlements. I do not want the government to confiscate my firearms, and instead force me to rely on a police force that is not even required to protect me. We have created a behemoth of a monster with the federal government, and it is literal insanity to think that it isn’t doing enough. I’d wager that, without even knowing the specific cause, that the leviathan size of the federal government is the source of the majority of our problems we face today. It hasn’t solved poverty even though President Johnson started it in the 1960’s. The Great Depression era reforms have not fixed issues with markets. I could go on, and on, and on.
I believe that before we even discuss using the Federal Government to “fix” any more issues, we ought to figure out what exactly our Federal Government is.