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What Is Government For?
Governments continue to expand into more and more areas of life as we expect more and more
The simple question what is government for? is, surprisingly, not often asked. We take for granted our governments in much the same way as we take for granted electricity and telecommunications. Yet, just like these two services, government is the result of thousands of decisions and the actions of hundreds of thousands of people. Not so long ago, governments largely confined themselves to very limited spheres of operation; today they pervade every area of our lives. Not so long ago, income taxes were either non-existent or extremely low; today, most people end up paying a very significant percentage of their earnings in taxes. A couple of centuries ago people expected almost nothing from their governments; today we seem to expect absolutely everything.
One problem is that governments are, like all monopolies, inefficient: one tax dollar does not provide one dollar of value to society. Moreover, our needs will always exceed the total potential GDP of any nation so even if taxes reached 100% of GDP that would still be insufficient to meet everyone’s wishes in every regard. So we are today in a situation where we’re paying a lot but expect even more. It’s not surprising that poll after poll shows universal public dissatisfaction…
