I've decided to start an occasional talking point of the [f]right wing (be they be self-proclaimed Libertarian, Conservative, or Republican), and completely tear it apart using something I like to call 'thinking'.
The first myth on the list: how Government is "too big", and a cure for so many ills in the country is to make the government "smaller".
I'll take the first site Google gives me, and show what the connections are, and what really motivates people to want 'small government'. I'll then take the whole idea of 'small government' and work it through to its logical conclusion.
Details, below the fold...
Small Government, apparently, has its own website...
Big Government is the problem. Small government is the solution.
We must propose small government, campaign on small government, and vote for small government.
Tiny operation, wanting a eensy tiny government. Just a small voice in the...
...hold on. A quick Whois search of this particular website (it's like tracing where a parcel came from by contacting the shipping company, but in this case the parcel is a website) gives details of the one-man operation running this.
Sorry: one woman. Carla Howell.
She was the Massachusetts Libertarian Party candidate in the race for U.S. Senate in 2000, which was won by Democrat Ted Kennedy. Howell received 11.9% of the vote (a total of 308,860 votes), only 1% behind the Republican, making Howell's the most successful third party Senate race in America in 2000, according to Campaigns and Elections magazine. She ran for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002. In the race won by Mitt Romney, Howell finished 4th with 23,044 votes. In 2007, she, along with fellow co-chair Michael Cloud, re-formed the Committee For Small Government (the group behind the 2002 effort to end the income tax). Info from Wiki.
Her personal website also mentions one Michael Cloud.
His Wiki entry says: He briefly served as campaign manager for the 1996 Harry Browne for President campaign, replaced by Sharon Ayres. He was formerly known as Michael Emerling.
I'm never too sure about anyone that change their names beyond a stage name. So I decided to see how careful with money this Michael Emerling has been in the past.
The answer: not very.
Emerling's financial habits caused problems both within his marriage, which ended in 1990, and for the LP, though this never became known at the time.
Over the years Emerling-Cloud had borrowed money from friends and supporters. He declared bankruptcy, including in this a debt to a woman who had loaned him her life savings believing that they were about to start their lives together.
It continues... and this may be the real reason why this man wants "smaller Government"...
According to Emerling's then wife, Vickie Emerling, Michael's attempts to cut corners on their IRS return in 1987 caused them to be confronted with an obligation and penalties of around $40,000.
Oops. Bang goes the high-falutin' idea that a push for smaller government is a high ideal. Looks like it's for people that have a bone to pick with paying their way like the rest of us.
---
So that's a look at your average Libertarian (translation: I have the freedom to hold onto my money, other people have the freedom to go hungry).
OK, let me get right down to it. Emperor's New Clothes Time. There is no such thing as "small government".
So we've already seen what people think of when they say they want "small government"...? I'm going to summarize, so feel free to comment if any part of this is wrong, but people that use that phrase mean one thing: I do not want levels upon levels of bureaucrats in Washington taking my money in taxes to fund some stupid museum or bridge or welfare scam somewhere else. Or just taking my money. It's mine, mine, MINE.
OK, so imagine what it would be like if nobody did that. Nobody paying any taxes to pencil-pushers in a shiny office block. One Monday, all that just went away.
Congratulations: you are now living in a Third World country. Look at these lucky bastards. They to keep everything they have earned. Government doesn't ask for a thing.
No taxes to fix roads in another part of the country. No funds to art projects. Surely they are living the American Sudanese dream.
And on that Monday, once that big bureaucracy with its policing and system of courts goes away, everyone will just live in a land of rainbows and free-market fairness with all the money they could eat. Right?
Yeah. Right.
Right up until Tuesday, that is, and then this guy comes along.
Ladies and gentlemen: meet Dwayne. He's the new boss, same as the old boss. Well, not quite the same as the old boss. You see, the old 'boss' that wanted a percentage of your cash was a college graduate living in Maryland that weighed 150lbs and stood 5'9" in his hiking boots. The new boss lives close to you, and calls personally for that money. Ever since that Big Government went away, this guy has risen to the top by using a combination of threats (and something he likes to call "ruthless insane arson").
And maybe he likes the look of your daughter too. He'll take her too, if you don't mind.
If you know what's good for you.
Now: the people that say they want "less Government" the most are, surprisingly, those that want to be in the Government. Just look at Michael and Carla's examples above. Which makes me think that one of two things is happening here:
either these people are the biggest-hearted people you ever did see, or
Jesus H. Christ on a bike, some people are gullible. If you told them that shit sandwiches were good for them, they'd eat 'em all up.
So there we have it. There Is No Such Thing As Small Government. There are different types of government, and the smaller ones are usually small because it's a small group of people that have most of the control. To the detriment of everyone else.
---
And now, the summary. 'Tax' is just another way of saying 'earnings', but earnings made by the Government. Earnings that are made on the local, State and national level to help pay for those luxuries in life that nobody needs. You know: education, roads, regulatory bodies that ensure we're not drinking water chock-full of cadmium. Those luxuries.
You take that away, the roads in the north of the country become moon-cratered after the first freeze and thaw, and they never get better. Stop paying for education and literacy rates in the country start to fall. Nobody collects your garbage, and it only takes the garbage men to go on strike for a few weeks to show us what a mess we make for ourselves...
...this picture was taken in Greece. After just twelve days of no garbage collection in March (click link, then choose picture #3). Imagine the US after two weeks of "smaller government".
We would, quite literally, be in the shit.
Small Government: MYTH BUSTED.