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10 sats \ 5 replies \ @kepford OP 25 Mar \ parent \ on: A Culture Based in Lies is Doomed to Fail mostly_harmless
I agree with you with a caveat. The small government winds up being a centralized large government. State rights end up being trampled. What you describe is logical but also would lack two powerfully negative forces. The quasi religious belief in an entity that has a monopoly on the use of violence. And the empires that commit mass murder fueled by the quasi religious patriotic passion. We really can't rid the world of the human flaws that exist but we could try to build decentralized systems that account for them.
But this was one example. My point is about lies we pretend to believe.
The small government winds up being a centralized large government.
I agree. A small govt model will lead to economic success, which then will result in a very attractive target for those who want to consolidate power. Additionally, the "good times and small gov" will lend itself to a populace that is not inherently anti-state (after all the state is pretty good now). Thus, they will be susceptible to being persuaded to increase size of gov.
I think this is a continuous natural process, something like the business cycle, but here its the "governance cycle". A play on the "4th turning" idea:
Small Gov -> Good Times
Good Times -> Big Gov
Big Gov -> Hard Times
Hard Times -> Small Gov
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It was easier to have small government and federalism before 1913:
Federal reserve act
Income Tax amendment
Popular election of senators
Scalia said popular election of senator killed federalism and states rights
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Wait... when do we go to small government? Do you mean after collapse? Do you have an example?
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For sure Russians today are better off than those living under communism. I'd be shocked if you could find a Russian that would disagree with that. So not really small gov but better and smaller.
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