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At some point you have to weigh the harms of government overreach against the harms of government weakness and inadequacy e.g. failing to disburse unemployment
by closeparen 6y ago
At some point you have to weigh the harms of government overreach against the harms of government weakness and inadequacy e.g. failing to disburse unemployment insurance payments correctly in the presence of basic, predictable frauds during an economic downturn.
- arcbyte 6y agoAnd then that begs the question of whether we ought to be doing things of that nature in the first place. Government weakness helps prevent a strong showing of total incompetence or the effective implementation of hairbrained policies. And if that hampers legitimate government aims, it still serves the purpose of a society founded on the primacy of individual liberty.
- ClumsyPilot 6y agoWhats the difference between a government so weak it cant do anything, and no government at all? Without a limit, this appears to be an argument for anarchy
- inglor_cz 6y agoA government may be too overreaching in something and yet very weak in something else. It is actually a common state of things. For example, lots of countries across all ages were perfectly capable of fielding large armies and winning wars while the average citizen didn't have enough education to sign their own name. A balanced state is a rare exception of good governance and I am not sure how many of them are out there.