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What should be the role of government?

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Sand
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24 Feb 2009, 11:21 pm

Any government should be the fair arbiter between the many factions that make up society. In an ideal democracy the perceptive, well informed and educated citizens should each be endowed with a single vote to permit the formation of representatives in the government to oversee that the citizenry obtains the maximum benefit of the resources and social capabilities of the society as a whole. When the citizens are poorly informed and badly educated and can be persuaded by powerful self interested factions to create representatives that merely carry out the programs that benefit the powerful elite to the detriment of the country as a whole the culture as a whole deteriorates radically into a plutocracy that crumbles into a totalitarian condition. That is what is occurring now in the USA.



Ragtime
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25 Feb 2009, 12:13 am

Orwell wrote:
The thread question and the OP ask different questions.

Not really, if you interpret "should" the way I meant it.



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25 Feb 2009, 12:20 am

ruveyn wrote:
A government that keeps the peace within the society, deters or battles enemies from without, deters or punishes frauds, breach of contract and other unethical practices that makes mutual association and specialization of labor difficult. Out society depends on people honoring their contracts. If this state is not maintained we revert to the Hobbesian state where life if nasty, brutish and short.

ruveyn


So the function of government isn't suspending a nurse for offering to pray for a patient who didn't mind at all?

Cool.

(Thanks for the serious, well-thought-out response, BTW. My OP was seeking such real-world, practical, and helpful answers. That's why I selected yours to respond to.)



Orwell
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25 Feb 2009, 8:09 pm

OK then, I'll be serious.

The ideal government is one which is unobtrusive when it is not needed and strong when it is needed, and responsive enough to be able to discern when it is and is not needed.


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Awesomelyglorious
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25 Feb 2009, 8:15 pm

Government's role is not to exist.



ZEGH8578
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25 Feb 2009, 8:27 pm

to function as village elder and shaman.

obviously, we have a major global problem :(



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25 Feb 2009, 8:49 pm

Jkid wrote:
An ideal government would be one that is, like sartresue suggested, provides peace, order and good governance, AND provides the people the opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

corrected :)



ruveyn
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26 Feb 2009, 2:53 am

Bataar wrote:
Jkid wrote:
An ideal government would be one that is, like sartresue suggested, provides peace, order and good governance, AND provides the people the opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

corrected :)


People create their own opportunities. The best governments can do is to keep person A from interfering with person B by forceful or unethical means. A government cannot make a Gucci bag from a pig's rear end. Only Gucci can make a Gucci bag from a pig's rear end.

ruveyn