You might think I have numerous political opinions on various topics. Technically, yes, if you look at the article guide here on this blog, you’ll find a list of articles where I examine various political topics.
However, the truth is that I have only one political opinion. I don’t have many different opinions like most people… I just have one. Here it is:
Government is too big. We should make it smaller.
That’s it. That’s all. Government is too big, costs too much, wastes too much, does too much, enriches too many bad people, screws up too many things, and hurts too many innocent citizens, both here and abroad. Therefore, we should make it smaller. That is literally my only political opinion. Every other opinion I state is simply an outgrowth of that one viewpoint.
Government is too big. We should make it smaller.
The US federal government spends about $3.5 trillion dollars a year. It only brings in $3 trillion a year, which means it has to borrow $500 billion every year. On top of that, state and local governments spend an additional $3.4 trillion dollars a year. That’s a total of $6.9 trillion dollars a year.
Call me crazy, but I think government spending $6.9 trillion dollars a year is too much. It should spend less.
Amazingly, there are a sizeable percentage of people who actually think the government is too small and isn’t doing enough. I think these people are insane. Seriously. I think there is something mentally wrong with these people. The US government spends $6.9 trillion a year. It’s the largest government in the history of the known universe, literally. We should make that even bigger? Of course not.
Government is too big. We should make it smaller.
Note that I didn’t say how much smaller it should be. That’s intentional.
Many people get into arguments about how much smaller we need to make it. That’s irrelevant. Since government keeps growing in size, this argument is a waste of everyone’s time. You and I may both agree that government is too big, and your idea of the “ideal” size of government might be different than mine, but arguing about this is stupid. Government keeps growing. We need to stop it from growing. Then we need to start making it smaller. Then, at that point, we can argue about how much smaller it should be. But arguing about how much smaller it should be when it keeps getting bigger all the time is stupid.
Government is too big. We should make it smaller. Even a little smaller would be great. If, a year from now, every department in the federal government was reduced in size by just 1%, that would be an enormous victory. I would be very impressed and extremely pleased. I don’t think 1% is too much to ask for.
Then maybe, the next year we could try for another 1% reduction. Or even half of a percent.
Government is too big. We should make it smaller.
Another argument people scream about is when they say, “Well, yes, this part of government over here should be smaller, but this part over here needs to get bigger.”
Again, this is stupid. All of the government already gets bigger on a regular basis. In any given ten-year period, it’s overwhelmingly likely that both the government part you like and the government part you don’t like will get bigger.
You can’t make one part of government gigantic while keeping all the rest of government really tiny. History has shown repeatedly this isn’t how government or human nature works.
Examples of this are when left-wingers call for more free health care, and get it, and then are surprised when police in cities become massively militarized and start shooting black people and protestors. Or when right-wingers scream for more military power or more crackdown on drugs, and get it, then are shocked when middle class tax rates go up and the welfare state is expanded.
I’m not an anarchist. I think we need government to do certain things. I just think it should be smaller. We should make every part of government smaller in the short-term. Once every part of government starts getting smaller, then, at that point, we can have the discussion about which parts to reduce further and which parts to keep. But having that discussion now is stupid. Government keeps getting bigger. All of it.
Government is too big. We should make it smaller.
That’s it.
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CrabRangoon
Posted at 07:33 am, 14th June 2017Completely agree but given your last post about how leftist we have become as a nation, I can’t imagine this ever happening. They want to give out free college in NY, free birth control, free healthcare and i even saw something in Oregon where they are adressing that nasty ole gender pay gap with more laws which claims you can somehow get 2 years back pay. Can’t make this shit up anymore.
Caleb Jones
Posted at 10:51 am, 14th June 2017Correct. It isn’t ever going to happen. That’s why I’m leaving.
David Lupica
Posted at 02:19 pm, 14th June 2017Of course agreed. I believe the left wants big government more than the right ( speaking of citizens.) I think if you really explain to a lot of Trump and George W. voters what their beloved republican politicans really push for (more control over our private lives) they will have an “aha” moment and realize they are in fact libertarian. In the end, they would still vote the same way out of fear of the evil Left becoming too powerful. I don’t blame them though. I am guilty of the same at times.
In other news, just as soon as I decided to move to Puerto Rico to save on corporate tax, they voted to become a member of the U.S.! (Enjoy your new federal income tax!) Thankfully it takes 10 years so I can plan my next hop.
Stork
Posted at 03:54 pm, 14th June 2017I don’t understand why would anyone consider getting an American citizenship a good thing in these days, unless they’re from some third world hellhole. The American citizenship is among the ones with the most liabilities in this planet, yet the US government act like it is the hottest thing ever and putting all these insane restrictions both at acquiring it and renouncing it.
Think about it, a European might be less free, yes, but only as long as he is residing in his high-tax police state country. But as soon as he leaves its jurisdiction has practically zero obligations towards such government. He is no longer paying taxes to it and is not bound by its laws, only the laws of his new host country.
For an American this is quite different. The whole “if you don’t like it you just can leave” does not apply to him. If he leaves he is still bound to pay income tax to the IRS for life and is still bound to obey many US laws, which practically means your government considers you an asset of its property. There are countless stories of adult Americans going for sex tourism to countries like Brazil and coming back to find they’re charged with statutory rape because they banged some 17yo girl over there or with drug related charges because they did some drugs while outside of the US.
The notion that a country may still prohibit you from doing things that its laws say you can’t even when outside of its borders is so bizarre that even people used to the insane and growing levels of statism in Europe find it hard to believe when I explain this to them. No matter how much the government wants to fuck with you it is just assumed that it all has to stop once you cross the border, anything else is slavery, being a property of your government.
This, in case it may look a little off topic, is proof on the matter of government being too big. If anyone cares to look it up you’ll find that the list of things your government has a claim on you is frighteningly long and intrusive.
joelsuf
Posted at 02:40 pm, 15th June 2017Like what? Anarcho-Capitalists like us want to know. How come citizens can’t be their own government?
This is because government exists period. Get rid of government, and healthcare will be stupid cheap (hell, EVERYTHING would be stupid cheap) and no law enforcers would be armed to the teeth. End the war on drugs, and all of a sudden those who did drugs will just do them peacefully because they won’t be so nervous about breaking the law. AND tax rates wouldn’t go up (cuz they wouldn’t exist) and there would be no welfare state.
joelsuf
Posted at 02:46 pm, 15th June 2017When it blows up in their faces its not gonna be pretty. Relying on the state to help you is one of the most dangerous (and pathetic) things that someone can do.
Even living off of the grid is illegal now. THAT should say something.
Caleb Jones
Posted at 04:27 pm, 15th June 2017They can, but they will never choose to do so. If you waved a magic wand and eliminated all governments, the very next day people would start forming governments again. Sadly, human beings like government, which means you’ll never see anarcho-capitalism work in the real world the same way you’ll never see true communism in the real world. Both are against human nature.
Instead, let people have their stupid, silly governments, just work really hard to keep them as small as possible. That’s doable in the real world (USA did it for a while, Hong Kong did it for a while, etc), though granted still difficult.
A Man
Posted at 05:26 pm, 15th June 2017Seriously?
joelsuf
Posted at 10:45 pm, 15th June 2017Fair enough. That makes me pretty depressed, that its come down to where we have become so against self determination and self accountability that we rely on government to feed us, provide education and keep us safe, all three done really poorly by government no matter how small or big. It doesn’t get to me the way it used to get to me however.
Caleb Jones
Posted at 11:35 am, 16th June 2017Outcome independence. Stop giving a shit about society. As long as your happiness is tied up with what society does, you’ll never be happy.
It doesn’t make me depressed at all. At this point, it actually makes me laugh.
walter
Posted at 01:02 pm, 17th June 2017Ok, so we need to make federal government smaller. where do we start?
Perhaps turning some “federal gvt fuction” stuff into “local government” stuff???
(I am not american so i dont really understand completely how the system works)
Caleb Jones
Posted at 01:12 pm, 17th June 2017The president can start cutting 100% of all programs in the executive branch, which is huge, whenever he wants, as I described here.
But since Trump is for big government, that isn’t going to happen beyond a few areas he’ll cut just to throw a bone to his base.
walter
Posted at 08:27 am, 18th June 2017I see. If you could only eliminate one of those executive branch agencies, which one would it be and why?
Your post “if I was president” was very good. If I was president I would make item # 4 a priority. So many people get their lives ruined over ridiculous drug related offenses.
Caleb Jones
Posted at 11:34 am, 18th June 2017I wouldn’t eliminate one, since that wouldn’t help anything.
joelsuf
Posted at 01:19 pm, 18th June 2017Well same here but still. I have some emotional stake in it. But yeah, touche. Outcome Independence solves everything.
walter
Posted at 09:16 am, 19th June 2017But what about the people who work on those departments you would cut? Do you think most of them will be able to quickly find jobs in the private sector or local goverment sector?
We have to keep in mind most of those government workers have debts, or pay rent, or are paying for the education of their children, etc. A president should not suddenly fire them like that. It would cause a chaos.
Caleb Jones
Posted at 01:51 pm, 19th June 2017I would give them one-year severances packages.
They certainly could within one year.
Yes, our government has become so overblown that trying it to fix it at this point, no matter what we did, would cause mass chaos. That’s why the USA is unfixable and destined for destruction. We’ll have to wait until everything collapses, then focus on building a new country correctly afterwards.
CrabRangoon
Posted at 01:20 pm, 21st June 2017Just read this tidbit in an article today about the recent Georgia election where the Democrat lost. Look like you are indeed correct that they intent to take a very hard left lean in upcoming election which many young voters will eat up…
“There have been, and will continue to be, loud calls for the party to adopt the policy agenda espoused by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren: lurching leftward and toward a populist economic platform. Under this scenario, Democrats would embrace candidates who excoriate the wealthiest “1 percent” and promise to curb income inequality, zero out public college and university tuition and enact single-payer universal health care. The Sanders-Warren populist agenda would be trumpeted in House and local races across the country.”
berzerk
Posted at 01:06 pm, 2nd August 2017Ed Seykota wrote a book Govopoly on monopoly by government sanctions and that it’s irreversible. You may like it, here’s the link http://39thday.com/