Quote:
Originally Posted by hoyacoug
2. You claim the government is a parasite. This is illogical, given you also claim it gives us "enabling constraints." Parasites don't enable (other than to help us poop more freely). Government is a framework within which we all operate. Acting within that framework, paradoxically, is frequently liberating (much as obeying the word of wisdom, for example is liberating even though it removes the option of partaking of certain substances- you have called this an "enabling constraint"). This has nothing to do with your point in #1 above, however. An individual's opinion on #1 does not necessarily reflect, nor does it necessarily affect, an individual's opinion on #2.
In short, I'm not sure what you are trying to assert here.
|
First we need perspective.
Society is larger than government. Government is both a parasite and an enabling constraint. It is first a parasite, and second sometimes enabling if it doesn't kill or greatly weaken the host society.
To the extent that busines can predict, business will function at some level. Government, which offers predictability offers some benefit.
An example of an enabling constraint. Industry needs educated workers, but the funding frequently comes from real estate tax revenue which impacts the real estate of industry and commercial centers in addition to residential property. The revenue drain reduces available capital, but to the extent better workers are produced through education, industry should be able to recapture losses through increased productivity.
To the extent, government brings reasonable order to chaos, government is enabling. To the extent, it causes traffic jams, it is parasitic and harmful. The problem with large institutional governments is much of what they do lands more in the area of making traffic lanes impassable, as opposed to ordering chaos. To some extent, once basic ground rules are set, commerce will bring order.
The tension of order versus chaos was one of the themes found in Babylon 5 with the Vorlons versus the Shadows.
It is my position that the American left is all about traffic jams and the American Right has forgotten that traffic must move.
Somebody who desires our society to function as a living organism such as I, desires the least amount of enabling constraints, to allow the creativity of chaos and change to remain at play.
There's an axiom. "If something in commerce moves, tax it. If it still moves, regulate it. If it then dies, subsidize it." The Democratic philosophy is one of regulation and subsidy. A true Republican philosophy is one laissez faire.
Both parties lose sight of the purpose and limitations of government, because for them, it's just a game of power.