WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT?.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT?

by Michael Peroutka

I think it is fair to say that we are reeling from the effects of out-of-control, bloated government.

But, what would a government that is “under control” look like?

Asked another way, “What is the proper, legal purpose of government?”

As I listen to most of the Republican candidates promote what they call “limited, conservative” government, their view continues to include welfare and warfare and phony, fiat money.  To be sure, they say we need less of it than we are fed by Obama, but they still plan to feed it to us, just in an amount that is smaller but, as yet, unspecified.

They still seem to follow the idea that the purpose of government is to help people who can’t help themselves.  To them, the civil government’s role includes the provision of an economic “safety net”.

But is this the true American View?

Let’s look for a moment at what Thomas Jefferson and our Founding Fathers said about the purpose of government.

In our Declaration of Independence, the document that sets forth the reason for separation from the English Crown, they said:

• There is a Creator God

• He – God – is the Source of all law including our rights

• The proper purpose of civil government is to protect and secure these rights. What rights?  Well, those God-given rights they just mentioned in  the previous sentence.

So, in the American View, the purpose of government is…to secure God-given rights.

So how much welfare should the government perform with money it has to tax or borrow into existence?  None, zero. 

In the American View, the civil government has no authority to feed, clothe, or shelter anyone.  That’s the job of individual charity and voluntary institutions which, incidentally, did a good of it job before the civil government took over.

This is MAP for IOTC bringing you TAV.