There are so many problems that would just go away if we have less government. This is because while there are many problems created by individuals behaving badly with regards to other individuals, the government seems to compound existing problems and create new ones. Here’s a short list of several problems that would probably go away if the government were to leave well enough alone:
- International hostility toward the United States would probably deflate with a full military pull out across the globe. Keep the soldiers and warrior here to defend our country along with an intelligence agency that is only concerned with threats to America and you might see a lot less of a reason for morally depraved individuals to inspire hatred against us. There was no Al-Qaida in Iraq, for example, until we invaded it in 2003 and toppled Saddam’s government. The result was a power vacuum that Al-Qaida was trying to exploit. The stated reasons for the 9/11 attacks by Osama Bin Laden and his cohorts was largely related to our military occupations in foreign lands. The problem is, the military industrial complex is constantly seeking to justify its bloated budget and very existence. So they will intentionally antagonize nations that are perceived as threatening or alien to our own culture in order to motivate public opinion to go war. This is exactly what is happening now with Iran.
- Poverty would by and large become much less of problem with limited government. This is because of the nature of the parasitic welfare state. In a welfare state, the intentions are good and start out with good results in the immediate short turn. However, as more and more people realize that you can leech off of the system, a system which steals money from the productive, it becomes larger and larger. The problem is, there is always a finite number of people engaging in labor and the welfare state removes those people from productive labor endeavors. As such, tax revenues go down while welfare demands go up. The result is rampant poverty for everyone because everyone’s standard of living goes down. First the welfare recipients who still maintain a certain level of perceived poverty in order to keep the checks coming and second the productive sector since they end up having more and more of their money go to the moochers. Also, so long as the government is given full authority to determine what poverty is, there always will be an ever increasing level of poverty.
- Pollution would be reduced due to limited government in combination with respect for property rights. By and large, pollution is caused by the local and state governments, usually being bribed, allowing companies to dump their waste by-products in some area or another. If most lands were owned by private individuals, and all land not owned considered off-limits, this leaves companies with little alternative but to find someone willing to allow them to dispose of their waste properly. If you have a coal plant nearby, you would not want it pumping Sulfur Dioxide into the air, which is one of the major by-products of coal combustion, so you would demand that they make sure they have scrubber in order to keep the air ejected from the smokestack as clean for all. This is because your lungs are your property along with the land you live in near it. The fact is, most pollution is the result of local and state governments allowing it while turning a blind eye to the infringements of property damage that result.
- Illegal drugs would become much less of a problem if they were made legal. Again, this is related to property rights as your body is yours and not the government’s therefore you should be permitted to treat it as you see fit. With substances like marijuana legal, most drug cartels would end up going out of business. The result would be that enterprising businessmen would sell these substances in a manner that would allow people to safely consume them. Also, it would take away the romantic allure of it because it is legal now. If you ever go to a pot shop in Amsterdam, you’d see mostly American tourists. Over there, they have less teenagers than we do smoking pot.
There are so many more things that would be resolved with less government, but I think this is a good list to start with. Unfortunately, humanity is more often motivated by fear and greed when it comes to politics rather than love and moderation. So I doubt anything will done to curb the massive size and influence of government at all levels.
Most people are idiots.