The Role of Government

This is my politically oriented blog.  In this blog I intend to make political comments and respond to political events.  To start with I would like to present my overall political philosophy.  I consider myself to be an independent voter even though I tend to vote for more democrats than republicans.

What is the role of government?  First let's compare government to private industry.  The main difference between business and industry activities and government activities is time scale.  Corporations respond to pressures on a quarterly basis.  A few companies look ahead 5-10 years but most are only concerned with and only focus on the quarterly profits. Corporations are not designed to focus on long term goals.  Governments should focus on long term outcomes for the good of society.  This is where completely laissez faire economics fails.

For example there will inevitably be economic upturns and downturns as the economy experiences growth or falls into recession.  During recession the government is very responsive in economic stimulus spending and cutting taxes.  It is during periods of economic growth that our government usually fails.  During growth periods we need to reduce spending as well as increase taxes.  It is unlikely anyone is going to agree to this but I think it is true that we should try to limit growth to some extent.

I also believe that the government should provide some social services to people.  People with mental and physical handicaps should be provided for.  Elderly who can work should probably still work.  Elderly who can no longer work should be provided for by society.  I believe that the government should provide education for all citizens at least through high school and in some cases beyond.  I believe that a minimum amount of healthcare should be provided for all citizens.  The government should provide some infrastructure for roads and highways at some level.

The government should have laws that prevent one entity from injuring another and this also applies to corporations.  The government should make sure that corporations do not impose hardships on citizens.  For example companies should not pollute in a way that causes significant hardship for the rest of society.  This may result in short term profits for the corporation but will result in long term hardship for the rest of society.  The government should prevent foreign powers from injuring our citizens and so defense comes into this category.

Finally governments should have a long term goal of sustainability.  Our opportunities for growth beyond Earth are extremely limited so we need to be able to make use of this planet for the longest possible time.  To support sustainability the government should probably investigate alternative energy sources because energy will become one of the most important factors in this century.

To summarize I believe governments should take a long term outlook towards sustainability, provide some social services, try to reduce severity of economic cycles both growth and recession and prevent one entity from injuring another.