Nature of Government

The simple truth about the government is that it is inefficient and wasteful and as such it oftentimes does more harm than good to its citizens. In fact, the bigger the government is, the more harm is created by its seemingly noble work. To prove this point and to build up the case for the superiority of classical liberalism and free society over social state, we take a closer look at the nature of government.

Free government services are never free! Government doesn't provide free services to its citizens. Government doesn't create wealth, government only spends and redistributes wealth. So in order to do good, government first needs to get the resources (money) from someplace. Government taxes its citizens in order to finance all the free stuff it gives to its citizens. Not so free eh?

Government redistribution of wealth is immoral! Each time the government enacts a new social program it forces the people to pay for it, taking away people's liberty and property. It's like a Robyn Hood on steroids, the government initiates force to take resources away from one group of people and gives them to another. Impoverished people are then compelled to use those services because their money has already been taken away and there is no more money left for them to consider using free market options.

Government is incapable of redistributing wealth amongst the people equally! In democratic societies, interests of majority groups always get served before those of the minorities. Majority rule dictates that the government will always be in favor of those who elected it, and no amount of protection can save the minorities from injustice.

Wealth redistribution destroys individual's incentive to create wealth, thus promoting welfare and poverty! This is the result of the great injustice in taking resources from the productive part of society and giving it to the unproductive part of society. So why work hard when you'll be taken care of by the government and arrive to the finish line at the same time as everyone else. Let the other idiot pull harder and do the work for us!

Government is inefficient as it requires wast amounts of resources to operate! Just like the famous thief, who in the process of doing the good deeds for the poor, cuts the ham and cheese to feed himself, so does the government employ various governmental institutions and pays their workers to do all the Robyn Hood deeds. Since those workers consume wast amounts of resources in terms of benefits and wages and since their wealth redistribution work creates no real wealth to country's economy, they are a great burden to the society.

Government is a monopoly not accountable to anyone! This means that it has no interest in providing quality services, when there is no incentive for improvement and no one to report to. Government-run social services operate independently from the free market and their monopoly status protects them from market forces, making them immune to dangers of running out of business.

Government is incapable of spending our money wisely! It is not concerned with either price nor value of its services, because of the fact that it is spending someone else's money. Only individuals spend their own money in the best possible and most efficient way.

Government hinders innovation and progress! When government runs business, the innovation and progress stop. Why should government monopoly innovate when it can provide the same products and service year after year at no detriment to itself.

Power in the hands of government officials gives rise to corruption! When government employees and officials have favors to sell, they readily do so to their own advantage. This problem only gets exacerbated when government gets even bigger. It is therefore no surprise that politicians are seduced by and love power. For this reason, many unneeded, wasteful, and often harmful government programs and laws are enacted each year. Below are some typical examples of government bureaucrats illegally making money by selling favors to citizens.

A citizen dealing with: a local town official issuing a birth certificate, police officer issuing a traffic violation ticket, housing development architect issuing a construction permit, pubic university professor deciding whether to give his student a passing grade, local official determining whether to provide entrepreneur with proper documentation for business registration, or whether to lose the paperwork of a returning refugee family registered for a home repair donation consideration, customs official deciding whether to examine businessman's imports in a timely fashion, a political party determining the price of their concessions, a judge determining the price of his ruling, government officials determining the amount of raise for their monthly paychecks and retirements, all the way up to the presidents with ultimate powers to trade and sell greatest of favors.

for more on this topic see links below