3 ms·

It's absolutely impossible to answer you because the very premise of your question is made in bad faith. You wouldn't even need to think, by yourself, very long

It's absolutely impossible to answer you because the very premise of your question is made in bad faith. You wouldn't even need to think, by yourself, very long to get a long list of examples; the fact that you somehow can't means you don't want to and don't intend to.

stogot 2y ago
The grandparent comment is abrasive and excessive but to some extent that opinion is shared by many. The federal government was never intended to be what it is today; the technocrats just keep growing it in wasteful directions and the general public feels a disconnect. A smaller and leaner government with a balanced budget is not a shocking thing to ask for.
- whattheheckheck 2y ago
  That world is long gone. And impossible to define objectively. What's the smallest leanest monopoly of violence that keeps the peace so that the most ambitious peoples' journies help deliver the greatest standard of living increases for the most amount of people while also preventing human rights violations and atrocities? If the govt wasn't meant to do that, then we still have those problems and I don't see any interest in any individual to solve it.
- Arnt 2y ago
  If I understand the polls correctly, the federal government was intended to be what it is, in the sense that the parts were intentional. Medicare was intended, and so on. Each of the parts that have large numbers of employees or large budgets was intended. The only thing that wasn't intended was that the sum of the large numbers should be large.
- bediger4000 2y ago
  > The federal government was never intended to be what it is today Many parts of all our government were never intended to be what it is today, executive branch included. We have a system that at least kind of works, changes should be made cautiously because a world-leading economy and country is a complex system.
- quickthrowman 2y ago
  Maintaining our status as the global hegemon requires lots of people and money, you don’t want to find out what happens if we fail to remain the sole global superpower.
  - sneak 2y ago
    What happens?
- atombender 2y ago
  When the federal government was created, the US had about 4m inhabitants and only 13 states, across a significantly smaller area. It didn't have electricity, telephones, the Internet, or modern plumbing. Healthcare didn't exist, labor safety laws didn't exist, food safety didn't exist, the FDA didn't exist. Women couldn't vote. Complex systems evolve to adapt, gaining new subsystems to handle the new requirements. There have been a lot of new requirements since 1789.

stogot 2y ago

The grandparent comment is abrasive and excessive but to some extent that opinion is shared by many. The federal government was never intended to be what it is today; the technocrats just keep growing it in wasteful directions and the general public feels a disconnect. A smaller and leaner government with a balanced budget is not a shocking thing to ask for.

whattheheckheck 2y ago
That world is long gone. And impossible to define objectively. What's the smallest leanest monopoly of violence that keeps the peace so that the most ambitious peoples' journies help deliver the greatest standard of living increases for the most amount of people while also preventing human rights violations and atrocities? If the govt wasn't meant to do that, then we still have those problems and I don't see any interest in any individual to solve it.
Arnt 2y ago
If I understand the polls correctly, the federal government was intended to be what it is, in the sense that the parts were intentional. Medicare was intended, and so on. Each of the parts that have large numbers of employees or large budgets was intended. The only thing that wasn't intended was that the sum of the large numbers should be large.
bediger4000 2y ago
> The federal government was never intended to be what it is today Many parts of all our government were never intended to be what it is today, executive branch included. We have a system that at least kind of works, changes should be made cautiously because a world-leading economy and country is a complex system.
quickthrowman 2y ago
Maintaining our status as the global hegemon requires lots of people and money, you don’t want to find out what happens if we fail to remain the sole global superpower.
- sneak 2y ago
  What happens?
atombender 2y ago
When the federal government was created, the US had about 4m inhabitants and only 13 states, across a significantly smaller area. It didn't have electricity, telephones, the Internet, or modern plumbing. Healthcare didn't exist, labor safety laws didn't exist, food safety didn't exist, the FDA didn't exist. Women couldn't vote. Complex systems evolve to adapt, gaining new subsystems to handle the new requirements. There have been a lot of new requirements since 1789.