What is the ideal role of government?

In general, the ideal role for government is to find a way to compromise the desires of all the competing interests to decide what the people governed by that government want to do for their own collective good.

Financially understand it’s demographic. Monitor all fiduciary’s for the better of the whole. Manage its debt and liabilities to other foreign countries in order to reduce tax/inflation and devaluation of currency.. Focus on safety issues of its population. Continue to upgrade it’s infrastructure. Be good ambassadors to other countries for peace and trading options. Maintain inflation at a reasonable rate (see assets liabilities and trade). Set up reforms. Manage reconciliation amongst civil war groups. Maximize its own resources. Ensure it’s judicial systems are competent and fair.

How must I know loll.

I’m curious that you think that no one would provide parks and libraries (or “proper” ones, anyway). It’s a good thing people have decided to provide us with amusement parks, theaters, concert venues. I’d hate to go to a government-run movie theater. (There are any number of privately run libraries that will admit all comers; ditto parks.)

I think that the proper functions of government are:

To prevent or preclude the use of force and fraud against its citizens—that is, to prevent us from doing those things to each other, and to prevent foreign governments (and individuals) from doing that to us, too. So I do believe in a system of courts, police and prosecutors and a robust national defense.

To set up a system of standardized weights and measures and enforce adherence to those units and standards. That’s really about as far as I think “regulation” should go. Things advertised and offered for sale should contain the contents as advertised, and no more or less. (Poisonous or adulterated products and faulty products sold without warranty or recourse would be covered under the first point I made.)

Government may be required for some, maybe even most, large scale civil works projects, such as building and standardizing roads, ports, railroads, airports, canals and the like. I think the time has probably passed when we could experiment with this being done “privately”, but I wish we had tried more of this in the past. (I do not think we need more government involvement in building sports venues. How this always seems to pass muster is beyond my comprehension.)

In most cases I think that if a thing is too important to be overlooked, then we should have no government involvement in it. Supermarkets, for example. I’m glad I don’t have to go to the Post Office for my daily bread…

PS: I think mail delivery should be privatized, too. The government may have an interest in ensuring that everyone can have delivery, but they ought not to be running the business.

I like things simple. I think that government should act in the best interests of it’s people, it’s economy, and be a link to other foreign economies. It should protect the people, the land, and it’s values. Not be self serving, hypocritaical, and act the big victim.

The government should provide law and order, defense, security, and support society and the economy. There should be regulation for the health and welfare of the public, but the government has gone way overboard with that one.

@CyanoticWasp The post office is a semi-private entity. No taxpayer money has gone to the Post Office since 1971. If libraries were privatized there would be a charge for entering them or for borrowing the books thus denying access to information and leisure to those who could not afford the rates. That would fly in the face of the whole “American Dream”/“pull yourself up by your bootstraps” ethic that so many like to purport as the American way. Libraries have allowed many who could not afford higher education a free public education.

@jealoustome your assertion about libraries is simply not true. You can walk into nearly any university library that you want to. You may not be able to establish a “lending account”, but you can avail yourself of the resource pretty freely.

Aside from that, my postal rates pay for the junk mail that I don’t want to be receiving anyway. I have no choice in that.

@CyanoticWasp Oh, pardon me. I assumed we were talking about free-standing libraries, not libraries that are attached to a large entity that is either state funded or heavily subsidized by the federal government.

@jealoustome a large entity that is either state funded or heavily subsidized by the federal government… they shouldn’t be. They weren’t on my list.

To govern.

To uphold the rule of law, and to distribute free beer.

Hey, you said ideal.

@CyanoticWasp If they shouldn’t be on your list, why did you assert that I was not telling the truth and use them as evidence that your plan would work? That doesn’t make any sense.

@CyanoticWasp I don’t think we’re clear on what a public good is. Movie theaters, amusement parks, and concert venues are not public goods as they charge admission, for one thing. A public park is free. Who would be motivated to provide land and upkeep for a park without money incentive? On a related note, and not just to you, should the gov’t provide free education through high school as it currently does? Obviously if that were privatized everyone would have to pay. I think gov’t should provide education. An educated population stimulates economic growth.

@cockswain I’m not laughing at your use of the word “free”. Just shaking my head and rolling my eyes.

There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

If you think medical care is expensive now, just wait to see how much it costs when it’s “free”. I feel the same way about education. Another battle lost. You’re a statistic if you believe in “free” public education. Sigh.

@jealoustome there still are private colleges; just because they receive some public money doesn’t make my example invalid. Most of us receive “public funding” from time to time and for various reasons. Are we all therefore invalid?

@CyanoticWasp Wha? You spin in so many circles with your logic. It dizzies me.

Private colleges are heavily subsidized in the form of student loans, grants, research grants, etc. This is common knowledge. Without government funding many, if not most, would go under. Without government funding, the only universities that would be able to continue to function would be those that were funded by corporate interests. Sure, this is workable. But, not many people in this country would be able to afford college without loans, and those that could afford to go would only be able to choose from a few majors that were directly related to the corporation that funded the school.

@jealoustome I don’t think that we can continue this discussion. You have this fixed idea that “the way it is is the way it has to be” and that without government support things would close up, cease, end, collapse, whatever. I’m just saying that that ain’t necessarily so.

I guess we’ll find out when the government does close up shop.

@CyanoticWasp I actually don’t have a fixed idea of “the way it has to be.” I’d love to hear a logical suggestion for a system to provide a quality education to our citizens that doesn’t involve huge, misused subsidies or biased corporate interest. The way it is now actually doesn’t work that great. I’m not closeminded, but I don’t enjoy conversations that lack logic. If you give me good, concise, logical reason to support your opinion, I’m more than happy to listen, and sometimes, learn.

Regardless of whether you agree with it, this is how a public good is defined: “In economics, a public good is a good that is non-rivalrous and non-excludable. Non-rivalry means that consumption of the good by one individual does not reduce availability of the good for consumption by others; and non-excludability that no one can be effectively excluded from using the good.” National defense is another example. Anyways, would you agree you have a strong libertarian philosophy regarding role of gov’t, and would prefer nearly everything were privatized? If so, point taken. I hope others will chime in on their view to get a discussion revived.

I think that the government has several roles. It should provide for the common defense, not only militarily but financially. It should level the playing field, limit the size of corporations, ban monopolies, care for common properties like parks and natural resources. It should provide punishments for people that violate citizens’ right to property, freedom, and privacy. It should be unobtrusive in our daily lives and run by competent people that are elected to serve for a limited time and administrated by professionals that are fairly paid but not too many of them.