Total Anarchy

Over the course of my posts, I have done a lot of government bashing.  Really, the government is so big that it is almost hard not to miss all of the stinking globs of terrible being thrown out by our honorable representatives.  A lot of comments I get regarding my posts that seem to indicate the reader believes I am anti-government.  This makes me question the reader's comprehension of my ideas.  I talk a lot about the Constitution and its amendments.  I'd say I spend more time talking about the Constitution than I do government.  So lets be clear.


I am absolutely against anarchy.

The government serves as an authority regulated by the people which is capable of using force to protect the rights of its population.  The most important part of that statement is the capability of using force.  The government can only accomplish tasks through the use of force.  When ever I say this, people immediately have a negative reaction to my choice to use the word force, but I believe that it is absolutely accurate.  The government is the only entity that has the ability to punish you by removing personal rights and in some states your right to life for not complying with its rules.  Once you begin to understand the concept that the government can only use force, you begin to see some government actions in a different light.


Since health care is still in the lime light, I'll keep with that topic for this example.  My biggest problem with the government health care debate is that the Constitution prohibits the federal government from taking any action in this arena.  In Obama's address, he mentioned that his plan would mandate minimum health care coverage just like many states mandate minimum auto insurance.  If auto insurance is such a good idea - why doesn't the federal government mandate a minimum auto insurance coverage?  The same reason there can't be a federally mandated minimum health care coverage: Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution covers the Legislative branch (which is where the current health care debate resides), Article 2 Section 2 covers the powers of the President, and Article 3 Section 1 covers the Judicial Branch.  I talked about this earlier in my post about the real issue with health care.  The government's powers are limited to protect us, the citizens of the United States, from those in power.  I'm sure you have heard Lord Acton's saying that ultimate power corrupts absolutely... that is essentially what the Constitution was drafted to protect against.

This is a slight tangent from the main topic, but I feel it is an important point that most people overlook.  When I argue that most of the current powers maintained by the federal government should be transferred to private corporations or organizations (like the FDA, Post Office, FTA, and everyone mentioned in my posts about the Government Machine), I am immediately bombarded by messages from people that say they wouldn't trust a corporation with these tasks because of the fear of corruption.  Since my post about the FDA received the harshest feedback, I'll visit that a little more.   In this post, I mentioned that 70% of the panels which approve prescription drugs had at least one member on the panel that had received money from the corporation that made the drug being reviewed.  This information was revealed in a highly respected scientific journal, Nature, in 2005.  The problem is that this sort of thing didn't change the way the FDA operated.  There are still independent articles being written regarding corruption with the FDA approval process.  This is because the federal government has decided that the FDA will be the governing authority in this regard and whatever decisions it makes are considered law.  Now let's look at some private industry corruption... off the top of my head, I think of Enron.  In 2001 Governor Gary Davis of California calls Enron an out-of-state profiteer, alleging fraudulent activities.  By the beginning of 2002, Enron's profits had plummeted, its stocks were worthless, and its top executive board was undergoing criminal proceedings.  Today there are still some trials taking place against non-Enron conspirators but, for the most part, it is gone.  In a little over a year the company was destroyed.  Understandably, a business' primary objective is to make profit... everyone knows this from economics class.  The way a company does this is by having a product or service that is of use to its customers, but if a company becomes corrupt (like Enron) it will be destroyed quickly allowing its competitors to fill in its place.


Now back to the topic at hand: where the government is useful.  Let's say that you and your neighbor are having a terrible argument.  Maybe this neighbor stole something from you - it isn't important for this exercise.  Anarchists, like Stefan Molyneux over here, is in favor of having corporations called Dispute Resolution Organizations (DROs).  These corporations would operate like E-Bay... each of its customers would have a rating that is essentially equal to your credit score plus a lot of other things like how people score your interactions (you paid on time or you delivered your product on time, etc).  I could see this working for small debts, but if there is a really crazy argument - there needs to be some supreme authority.  When these arguments occur across state lines, the Federal Government steps in and resolves the situation (otherwise it is left to individual states).

When you look at the government and its finely described list of powers, hopefully you begin to see where I am coming from.  The government is overextended and just like anything else (corporation, private organization, family, friends, etc) it gets sloppy, inefficient, and wasteful.  Unfortunately with the government: its waste is our waste and its power comes at the expense of our freedoms.  Whenever it makes a decision for us, that is one more option taken away.  I believe the government serves a purpose and has a place.  I believe it has grown uncontrolled and now needs to be pruned.  I believe the path towards a healthier government is through the education of the American People.