Small government was Re: [extropy-chat] EMP Attack?

[spike]

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Brett Paatsch
> Subject: Small government was Re: [extropy-chat] EMP Attack?
> 
> Spike wrote:
> 
> > These government guys wonder why we don't trust them
> > and want smaller government.
...
> 
> But how small a smaller government do you actually want?

I would like to see governments figure out that there
is an optimal taxation level, above which raising tax
rates results in a decrease in income to the state
because it suppresses the general economy.  All national
governments have overall tax rates that are above the
optimal.  Ronald Reagan (evolution bless his memory) was
one of the few that understood this.  I would estimate
the U.S. fed would be perhaps half to 2/3 its current
size, should it optimize.

> Roman emperors achieved very small governments but that situation
> didn't prove ultimately stable, not even for the Roman emperors
> themselves.

Rome was stable for a long time.  I would not expect
any form of government to last for more than a few 
hundred years.  I can't think of any that have.


> 
> Clearly smaller government isn't of itself always better government.
> 
> Brett Paatsch

Not clearly.  In the technologically advanced part of
the world, the national-level governments do too much
and cost too much.  Common defense and road building 
is all they really need at that level.  The rest of 
the stuff can be governed at a sublevel, such as the
American states, where we proles have a choice to 
live there or in another competing state.  Competition
forces state governments to optimize themselves.

spike