Regarding the role of government: A quote from Rand

This post is regarding the discussion earlier today about the role of government. This debate had been about the size of government and federal versus local government. (Here is a link to a .pdf file used by Navjot and Sandrine in their argument for smaller, more localized government. As I receive more references, I will update this post.) I lean more toward the smaller role for government side myself. To me, the issue is about a balance between the rights of individuals and the powers given to the government so that it can protect those rights. I don't believe it is the proper role of government to take care of everybody. I believe that I should have a right to be left alone, and I would rather become successful and prosperous due to my own effort and merit rather than have things handed to me based on a perceived need. I think it's dangerous to give a massive, bureaucratic government decision making authority and control over people's lives.

This article from Peggy Noonan of the WSJ (subscription required) relates to this topic and expresses my position well. Basically, she points out how large, bureaucratic governments (and I would add large corporations as well) often seem to have habit of separating authority from responsibility - politicians typically want more authority, but spend much of their time avoiding responsibility. In short, when it comes to separating actions from consequences, size does matter and smaller is better in terms of the accountability of a government to its citizens (or stockholders in the case of a corporation). Of course transparency matters a great deal too, but I would like to save that discussion (about transparency and how it is achieved) for a later date and deal with that separately.

This "role of government" issue is a social and cultural issue by the way, not just a political one.

I would like to redirect this discussion in the future to focus on the role of government in terms of what it should and should not be doing. Perhaps the following quote will be relevant when the debate is taken up again:

Remember that rights are moral principles which define and protect a man’s freedom of action, but impose no obligations on other men. Private citizens are not a threat to one another’s rights or freedom. A private citizen who resorts to physical force and violates the rights of others is a criminal – and men have legal protection [via government institutions] against him.

Criminals are a small minority in any age or country. And the harm they have done to mankind is infinitesimal when compared to the horrors – the bloodshed, the wars, the persecutions, the confiscations, the famines, the enslavements, the wholesale destructions – perpetrated by mankind’s governments. Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. When unlimited and unrestricted by individual rights, a government is man’s deadliest enemy. It is not as protection against private actions, but against government actions that the Bill of Rights was written.

That quote is from Ayn Rand in "Man’s Rights."

And here's another relevant quote:

"Giving government money and power is like giving car keys and whiskey to a teenage boy"

-- P.J. O'Rourke

And another:

"Government is like fire -- at best an uncertain servant; at worst a fearful master."

-- George Washington