Libertarian Strategies for the Best Life Possible

You must ask yourself, do you trust one man to choose how you will live your life? Do you trust a group of men? Groups are good at looting and having riots. Groups have trouble working together for the common good. And then, when you give them the power to take money from me at the point of a gun, you have "power corrupting." If you think the money is not taken at the point of a gun, try not paying and see what happens.

So..... as I want government to be as small and powerless as possible while keeping the borders from being over-run by the Germans (What year is it?), I must deal with each specific concept of "should the government be in charg of..." from that perspective. Do I want the government to do it? Do I want the inefficiency of tenured beauracracy, or the efficiency of competition.

With respect to social programs, I think we should be allowed to help each other, and leave the government out of it. This is another area that I don't want the government in. They are inefficient, and innefective. I imagine "poverty" has increased since the 60's welfare revolution, as the candle light of motivation is snuffed out by lure of an almost-living-wage from the government. If you're on welfare for 3 years, that's three years of wasted time until you get the job you would have raced to get sooner if there was no welfare.

These arguments become simply a "less government/more government" difference of opinion. People ant to be happy and have a good life, and look for a communal solution to their problems. It will all boil down to what proof can we put forth for one side or another. Often, examples of the failure of socialism are defended with "but if we did it right, it would work!"

Let's look for specific examples. The people at the Post Office have a job guaranteed for life... boy, they are a happy bunch. You have removed all possibility of failure... the ultimate welfare (I know, they are working, but you'll see my point.) and now they are totally miserable. ...and a productive bunch too...they are busy little happy drones working behind that counter. They couldn't GO any faster.

Compare this too walking in to Fed Ex at 5:00 PM. Now that's productive! Now, they are not all smiles, but I bet at the end of the day they have quite a sense of accomplishment.

I took a class in Russian Geography a few years ago, and one of the films we watched about life in Russia pointed out that the farmers didn't want to start their own farms, because if the crop failed, they would be broke. They were so used to the safety net, that taking a risk for wealth seemed crazy to them. They were enslaved by the government teat.

I am of course selecting examples that prove my point... but the point is that you have to pick a premise for a government and follow it through all it's manifestations. I feel like I can defend all facets of a "borders-protection-only" government. I feel as if bigger-govt defenders are saying "men can't handle that, govt needs to do that." If they aren't, then why are they giving govt the power over the area. That is always an invitation to sloth and corruption.

J.C.