The founders of this once great and noble country would be spinning in their graves if they had any idea what had become of the government they struggled so hard to set up. The American government, initially designed to protect its citizens and serve its needs, has found a loophole to bypass almost every restriction that the founders of the Constitution placed on it. The government seems to have forgotten its role to serve us and is becoming an increasingly oppressive force in our society. There is only one goal that the goverment continues to recognize: generating revenue.
There was a time when laws were passed as an attempt to protect society. Today, that time seems to be little more than a fading memory. Laws have simply become too numerous and more often than not overly restrictive. And many of the laws that harrass citizens the most were created only to generate additional revenue for the government itself. There are two main causes to this growing problem. The first problem is that the government has simply grown too large. Thanks to the media, most of us are somewhat informed on the intricate workings of the branches of government. Or so it would seem. Despite the impression given by the evening news, you are seeing only a small fraction of what is going on behind Uncle Sam's locked door. As much as we hear about the president and Congress, it is no longer just these two branches of government that have significant power. Bureacracies were never specified in the Constituion, but today are running rampid. Bureacracies exist to control almost every aspect of society. They are so numerous, redundant and more often than not conflicting that the only way for them to appease each other and reach a compromise is to pass law after law which increasingly restricts the freedom of American citizens. Every law that Congress passes is written in its most general form. It is then subjected to the red tape of the bureacracy or bureacracies to which it is assigned. By the time the law is applied it has become so complicated and restrictive that we were better off without it. There are simply too many factions and too many sides to each debate. In order to appease each of the racial, religious, social, and ethnic groups in America we must sacrifice our personal freedom. There is nothing that you can do anymore that doesn't risk causing discrimination or infringe on political correctness.
The second problem is the government's inability to manage its own finances. The reason is that the government does not have to work for its money. It is every tax-paying citizen in this country that works for the government's money. Uncle Sam is getting rich by doing nothing. And since the government does not have to work for its money, it feels no obligation to control its spending, wasting tens of thousands of tax dollars on items as trivial as toilet seats. The government is not in debt because it spends so much money on trying to set up institutions to proctect Americans. It is in debt because it wastes money. I hope you've started investing money for your future because Social Security will be non-existent by the time my generation needs it. The reason is that the government is so enourmously in debt that it is removing money from the Social Security program faster than it is coming in. Thanks to the governments incompetence millions of Americans are going to have to kiss their futures goodbye. The institution designed to protect them is screwing them out of a future. So how does the government cope with its money troubles? Does it try to control its spending? Does it take budget reform measures? Haha not our government. It just increases taxes and passes laws that are intended only to build revenue.
So far this article probably sounds like an anarchist's wet dream. But despite my annoyance with the United States government, the fact remains that government is an essential part of any society. Though degrees of oppression do exist in this country, it is not anywhere near as bad as what is experience by people living in other countries around the world. America unquestionably remains the freest country in the world. But are we truly free? Or is it just a lesser of several evils?