josh@topaz.ARPA (J Storrs Hall) (06/19/85)
This is intended to be a continuation of the discussion by Sykora et al on net.politics-- I think it fits better here. One major efficacious means for keeping limited government limited is to keep its funding out of its own hands. I take it as a point of departure that a limited government is desireable; and assuming for the sake of discussion that some government is necessary (on alternate days I will argue the opposite). It is a well-demonstrated fact of history that governments tend to grow and usurp power until countered by some force beyond their control. Often this force is merely the fact that, like a cancer, they have killed the country they live in. The cagier governments (like the US) will hover around the threshold of serious systemic damage, allowing the host country to live a long, lingering, death. The major support of a government is its suckers on the bloodstream of the host country, namely taxes. A government without the taxing power cannot engorge itself to anywhere near the extent of ours. On the other hand, if an effective way of limiting the power of government were known, this method could be applied to taxes as well, and the government operate in a conventional mode, but at a low, healthy level. What is the prospect of a government funded purely voluntarily? Since the devil's advocates abound, let's make the best reasonable case here we can: There are some pretty large organizations around that are funded purely voluntarily: religious denominations, political parties. It is reasonable to assume that there would be at least as much "patriotism" in a voluntary society as there is here; we might presume a custom of voluntary national service at age 18 or so, where the servee receives training, the respect of the community, and relief from the necessity of making major career decisions immediately, in return for his /her services. Even if only ten percent of the people at age 18 signed up for a two-year hitch, there would be about a million serving at any one time, surely sufficient for the needs of any limited government. A further source of volunteers is retired people, a current major volunteerism wellspring. Most services the government provides can be reduced in one of three ways: (a) remove it entirely, like taxi medallions and farm price supports; (b) de-monopolize it , and let the private sector take over, like the post office and utilities; (c) contract it out, and let user fees fund it as much as possible, such as defense and and whatever it is you just can't possibly see working in a free market. Consider the size of the US government in 1910, before the income tax and two world wars made it into what it is today. I claim that such a government could easily be supported by voluntary means. It could not be "the world's policeman" but I don't believe that's necessary. If Western Europe and/or Japan want us to protect them, let them hire us to do so. We'd be glad to, at a reasonable fee. --JoSH