A Call for a Return to Limited Government

Jim Rongstad's Homepage

The founders of this country knew from experience that governments tend to grow becoming more powerful and tyrannical. This is why they created a national government with only the limited powers they specified in the Constitution. Since the Civil War, and especially in this century, government powers have gradually been expanded to the point that government reaches into every aspect of our lives. Government programs subsidize certain industries and government uses its tax policies to favor some choices over others. Special interests contribute to campaigns because they can get something from government. By returning to limited government you remove the power of the government to hand out special favors.

The campaign finance scandals are merely symptoms of the disease of a coercive government. When people work through private organizations such as charities, service organizations, churches or business groups they work to voluntarily enlist others in their cause. When people work through government they force others to support their cause. When government is given the power to force others to pay for what you think is important, it is also given the power to force you to pay for what others think is important. To give government the power to take the property of taxpayers and to bestow it upon another individual (or organization) is still robbery even if it is done under the law and called taxation.

We should respect the rights of all people by doing most things through voluntary cooperation,not by controlling others. Each person owns themselves, no one owns other human beings. In a free market, each person sells their services to other people who wish to buy these services at the price offered. Each person enters into the transaction because in their judgment the result will be beneficial. Each participant is better off according to their own values. If the individual does not wish to purchase the service or thinks the price is too high, the seller doesn't receive any revenue from that individual. With government if an individual taxpayer doesn't want a particular service or thinks the price (i.e. taxes) for this service is too high, he is forced by law to pay for this service anyway. This is coercion or taking by force.

Government is the antithesis of the market. Those in power decide what to do with your money. If as an individual you disagree with how your tax dollar is being spent you have no right to say no. The only way you can hope to stop this spending is to gain political control,which means you need a majority of voters to agree with you. Even this is not a sure way as is demonstrated by the ongoing farce that is the "Stadium Debate" here in Minnesota. Poll after poll shows the people do not want the state to pay for a new stadium, yet the state continues to waste our tax dollars "studying" this issue. If Minnesota follows the pattern of other states a stadium will be built with taxpayer dollars to satisfy the greed of wealthy sports owners and their overcompensated players. If all governments would get out of the business of subsidizing pro sports, the owners would be forced by the market to reduce their obscene spendthrift ways. Player salaries would come down to a level that could be supported by those who wished to spend their money at the ballpark.

Government power encourages more government growth because when the government grants favors or subsidizes one group, it causes other groups to seek similar favors or subsidies. These groups become special interests that lobby and contribute to politicians to retain or expand their favorite program. Most of these programs by themselves are a small part of the budget, but together they add up. However the smallness of the individual programs protects them from attack by taxpayers because their effect on an individual taxpayer is so small.

Due to the growth of government, taxes now consume 47% of your income and if you include the costs of government regulations, the government consumes 57% of your income. The effect of this tax burden is that it strips middle class families of financial reserves and thereby lends support to calls for further government intervention in the economy in order to provide goods and services the family can no longer afford because of the taxes they pay. So government grows again and demands even more of your income. More special interest groups are created by this growth and the growth cycle continues.

Some politicians will campaign as friends of the working man by proposing to tax rich nasty corporations but they really are taxing you! Businesses in the final analysis don't pay taxes - you do. Income and property taxes charged to businesses are added to the price of the goods or services sold by the business. In the end, you the consumer pay this tax by your purchase of these goods and services. The social security tax paid by your employer is really money that could have been used to pay you more and the cost is passed on to the consumer. Taxing businesses is a devious way of taxing individuals, because the tax is hidden from your eyes in the cost of goods and services. Since you pay the taxes indirectly, you have no idea how much you are paying.

All taxpayers need to support across the board reductions in government programs, eliminating all programs except those that are absolutely necessary to protect the rights of individuals to be secure in their person and property. This will result in true campaign finance reform.