3 ms·
Small government is code of sorts for "rich over poor". The "size" of govt doesn't really matter. It's a money issue (isn't it always?) The phrase "small govt
by bruce511 3y ago
Small government is code of sorts for "rich over poor".
The "size" of govt doesn't really matter. It's a money issue (isn't it always?) The phrase "small govt" is a proxy for a) lower taxes and b) the ability to exploit then environment, workers, immigrants, whatever without interference.
I should be allowed to sell snake oil (no FDA), plunder a forest (no National Park nonsense), polute air and water (no EPA), build substandard housing, unsafe mines, and so on.
Most of all taxes should be low, or preferably non-existent. And if they must be collected they must be used to help me, not just given to my neighbor, or worse, my employees. Small govt means taxes should help the rich not the poor.
This is a perfectly legitimate political position for a party to take. If a majority agrees, thats democracy in action. It has served the majority well for decades, as long as the majority saw themselves as rich, or pre-rich.
Unfortunately now though the majority does not see themselves as rich anymore. Gone are the factories, the solid middle-class jobs, the affordable housing. Now the majority are poor, or pre-poor.
Ironically (on paper) the budget solution is obvious. Gut the military budget. There's $500 billion easy right there. (That can't really be done because the military budget is a back-door welfare program. Lots, and I mean Lots, of people get their salary from that budget.)
I know, I know, the military fights for our freedoms. They keep us safe. But pretty much no US military interventions since 1945, even more since 1990, have actually "protected Americans". Protected Kuwait (1st gulf war) sure. But how did Korea, Vietnam , Loas, Cambodia, Iraq or Afghanistan "protect Americans"?
I'm NOT ragging on the troops here, they go where they're sent . They do their jobs. We rightly respect them for doing a dangerous job. But the military is, at best, bloated and a money pit. Functionally it is a way of funnelling money to the rich, not the troops in harms way.