Good Government

How Society Prospers

Our lives are formed from the actions we take in pursuit of our needs and wants. We each seek our own ideals of food, shelter, enjoyment, understanding, purpose, and security. When we can satisfy our needs and wants easily, we are a prosperous society and life is good. When too many things get in the way of our wants and needs, we are disappointed and frustrated. One of the best solutions to these disappointments is for a group of people to cooperate in overcoming obstacles to their happiness. This cooperation takes the form of businesses, religions, schools, social clubs, and governments. Each of these organizations help the individual overcome certain difficulties in his life. In most cases, if an organization fails to fulfill its objectives, it is a simple matter to leave the organization and turn to an existing competitor or start a new, more appropriate organization. Government, however, is unique.

How Government Blocks Prosperity

The government is a tool of force; to accomplish anything, it supports itself by the threat of violence against any opposition. If it did not use this threat it would be just another business or social organization. Think of your own life. When can you justifiably threaten your neighbor with violence? Most people will agree that the only time violence is justified is to defend against force or fraud being used against them. In all other cases, if you want your neighbor to change his buying habits, or how he runs his business, or how he lives his life, it must be done by voluntary exchange or passive persuasion.  Think of what would happen if a business or a social organization started to physically force others to buy their products or conform to their social goals. It would become a scary place to live.

Unfortunately, our lives are becoming scary and chaotic because this exact scenario is being played out in all levels of government. Instead of protecting us from the force or fraud of others, the government uses its force to prop up whichever businesses and social organizations they feel are in their best interests to support. When this happens, the economic markets and the social order do not develop naturally. They develop according to the opinions of those who make the laws. Think of it this way: How many politicians do you know who are qualified to run your life? Now consider how qualified those same politicians are to manage the interactions between hundreds or thousands of people just like you. No person alive can pretend to do that, no matter how high their ivory tower.

Our government tries to manage our economic and social lives. Each time they fail, the answer is always the same: They must stiffen the regulations on our lives and increase the taxes on our labor. We must strip away the layers of taxes and regulation so that our government can fulfill its function: to protect us from the force or fraud of others while we regulate our own lives.

An Example

Because government meddles in many aspects of society, we can apply this concept of the proper role of government to many areas of life. For now, let’s examine the world of business. Common goals of modern government are to encourage new and existing businesses, protect workers and consumers from business owners, and extract funds from businesses to support the government. Most people will agree that businesses are beneficial to society, that one person shouldn’t use force of fraud to violate the rights of another no matter their position in a company, and that unfunded government is ineffective. However, there are many ways to accomplish these goals. If government is available, the question becomes, “Is it proper to use force to accomplish these goals?” Let’s look at the forceful solutions to these goals and compare them to solutions that minimize the use of force.

Encouraging business

Two ways government can encourage new and existing businesses are through subsidies and legal privileges. When a government subsidizes any business, they take the place of consumers and investors in deciding whether a business should exist. Normally, individuals examine what a business produces and the cost at which it is produced and decide whether they wish to take part in either risking their earnings to invest in production or spending their earnings to enjoy the product. If the cost is arbitrarily lowered by subsidy, the investor may be lured into a bad investment or the consumer may adopt an unsustainable standard of living. These only become apparent if the subsidy is withdrawn, therefore all parties will insist that the business continue to be propped up with funds forcibly taxed from their neighbors

Legal privileges can take the form of leeway to violate the liberty or property of others, or mandates that the product be purchased. If a business does not have the financial backing or consumer demand to freely negotiate market exchanges for the property and cooperation that it needs to survive, it is a sure sign that that business is not efficient enough in design or desirable enough to exist. This legal prop only distorts the market and encourages the waste of community resources. A mandate that a product be purchased is an enforced monopoly on a solution to a problem. We have seen an example of this with health insurance. Healthcare providers used to be subject to market forces and insurance companies were scarce because the market combined with charity provided an excellent solution to healthcare needs. Unfortunately, just as science and technology were dramatically improving healthcare, government began to mandate insurance as the new solution to healthcare needs. They enforced the existence of Medicare for the elderly, then Medicaid for the poor, group policies for large companies, and now tax incentives for small companies. If one solution is forced to exist, it is impractical to try to compete by using a solution that involves risk even if it is the better solution.

Protecting workers and consumers

Protection for workers and consumers generally focuses on wages, working conditions, and product quality. Normally violations of an individual’s rights are dealt with the same as between two neighbors. If a business owner agrees to certain wages, working conditions, or product quality and then doesn’t fulfill those agreements, it is obvious fraud and governmental force ought to be used against the perpetrator of the fraud. However, government officials seem to forget that businesses can’t force a worker to accept certain wages or working conditions or force a consumer to accept their product. If one company has poor employment habits, a better company can compete for the supply of workers, or the workers can create their own employment. If a product is not what a consumer wants, they will not purchase it. However, if the government is mandating the existence of a business or promoting a product, they are then responsible for ensuring it is operated appropriately. Thus one improper interference opens the gate for continued meddling. Mandating working conditions and wages also has a distinct effect on costs and the availability of employment. Normally, the voluntary social agreements between owner, worker, and consumer determine whether a business survives or not. When a level of efficiency (as measured by worker pay, working conditions, and product quality) is mandated, a small or startup company may not be able to provide competitively priced products without sacrificing on worker benefits. Even if a worker is willing to risk employment at a lower level of comfort or a customer is willing to risk lower quality for a lower price, they cannot. So the business fails to compete in its fragile startup stage or never exists in the first place. Competitive products are never introduced, prices remain high, and unemployment isn’t alleviated.

Funding government

This last goal ought to be the most obvious. When business, or a certain industry, or a certain size of business is taxed to pay for government services it doesn’t receive, it runs directly counter to the previously stated goal of encouraging business. The target businesses are disproportionately stressed in their ability to fund their own operations in production, wages, advertising, and expansion. A business that investors and consumers determine is highly desirable may be unnaturally restricted in its growth or survival, blocking the pursuit of happiness for those involved, despite their best efforts.

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