toldailytopic: What is the proper role of government?
- Thread starter Nathon Detroit
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What is your definition?
To give a more serious answer to the DT...
I agree with most people on these: national defense, judicial system, and infrastructure.
From there it gets more complicated. antiknight mentioned protecting us from capitalist greed and corporations getting too rich and powerful. To some extent I agree. But to some extent I think gov't contributes to the problem that they are supposedly to solve. So perhaps if they just left it all alone some things would work themselves out. Yorzhik suggested not even creating corporations and I think I'd support that.
Sort of related to that but not quite...I think the gov't can protect us from ourselves. What I'm referring to is what I've heard called the Tragedy of the Commons. People act in the best interest of themselves and when everybody does that, the result ends up hurting everyone. Someone needs to have the foresight and responsibility to keep that in check. To me it seems like the gov't can most easily fulfill that role.
I'm not completely happy with the current welfare/entitlement system but I feel like something is needed for certain instances.
elohiym
Well-known member
U.S. national infrastructure sectors include:
Agriculture and Food
Banking and Finance
Chemical
Commercial Facilities
Communications
Critical Manufacturing
Dams
Defense Industrial Base
Emergency Services
Energy
Government Facilities
Healthcare and Public Health
Information Technology
Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste
Postal and Shipping
Transportation Systems
Water
Going back to a previous poster's claim that currency is infrastructure, I would like to point out that banking and finance facilities are the infrastructure that supports the monetary system, but currency is not part of the banking and finance infrastructure.
lucy
New member
By overseer, you mean the government? Didn't work too well for Russia, and in North Korea, the so-called redistribution of wealth went into one guy's pocket while the general public starves. I agree with God's idea of men - we're all corrupt and since we are all corrupt, when someone has absolute power, it corrupts absolutely. I have not seen any government run program that actually gets funds to the people who most need it.
When the government comes to redistribute your "wealth", will you feel the same?
Ecumenicist
New member
The proper role of the government is to perform the will of the people. That's what the constitution says, anyway.
That's the great equalizer. When corruption leads to a few "haves" controlling the majority of the wealth and opportunity, the "have nots" have the opportunity to change the rules by changing the government in a peaceful fashion, through voting, thus avoiding the Russian scenario of 1917, hopefully.
That's the great equalizer. When corruption leads to a few "haves" controlling the majority of the wealth and opportunity, the "have nots" have the opportunity to change the rules by changing the government in a peaceful fashion, through voting, thus avoiding the Russian scenario of 1917, hopefully.
lucy
New member
I do not think it is the government's role to care for the poor. That is the job of the church. Case in point; when hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the coast, FEMA did a very poor job of getting supplies and help to the people. Churches and religious based disaster organizations (Salvation Army, etc.) however, were right in the middle of the situation and were able to provide food, shelter, rebuilding supplies, etc.
A leader of one such organization who spoke in my church during this period reported that FEMA even contacted their organization for help in getting into areas quickly and more efficiently. Government is too big, too bureaucratic, too corrupt to truly help where help is needed. Another case in point; I knew a lady that was going to a community college to get an associate's degree so she could go back to work and be a better mother/support system for her child. She was on food stamps. When she received a small scholarship to pay for her books, the government took away her food stamps. She had to drop out of school because she was left with the dilemma of either feeding her child, or going to school. What kind of choice is that? Unfortunately, our country has decided that the Government should replace God. We don't want the Government to supply defense, infrastructure, and a justice system, we want the Government to be like God. Try replacing God in the Lord's prayer- kind of scary isn't it...
Our government, who art in Washington, in you we put our trust.
Your health care come, your oversight run, our banking, credit, stock market, and justice system. Give us every day, our daily bread/housing credits/stimulus money/health programs, etc., and forgive the big banks their irresponsible lending practices, and the corrupt wall market insider traders, since these practices were endorsed (and participated in) by the congressional hags in Washington. And lead us no more into capitalism, but deliver us from strong morality and the Judeo-Christian beliefs of our forefathers. For a humanistic government is the power, and the deliverance and the way for America, for the glory of the strongest (i.e. "fittest"), Amen.
A leader of one such organization who spoke in my church during this period reported that FEMA even contacted their organization for help in getting into areas quickly and more efficiently. Government is too big, too bureaucratic, too corrupt to truly help where help is needed. Another case in point; I knew a lady that was going to a community college to get an associate's degree so she could go back to work and be a better mother/support system for her child. She was on food stamps. When she received a small scholarship to pay for her books, the government took away her food stamps. She had to drop out of school because she was left with the dilemma of either feeding her child, or going to school. What kind of choice is that? Unfortunately, our country has decided that the Government should replace God. We don't want the Government to supply defense, infrastructure, and a justice system, we want the Government to be like God. Try replacing God in the Lord's prayer- kind of scary isn't it...
Our government, who art in Washington, in you we put our trust.
Your health care come, your oversight run, our banking, credit, stock market, and justice system. Give us every day, our daily bread/housing credits/stimulus money/health programs, etc., and forgive the big banks their irresponsible lending practices, and the corrupt wall market insider traders, since these practices were endorsed (and participated in) by the congressional hags in Washington. And lead us no more into capitalism, but deliver us from strong morality and the Judeo-Christian beliefs of our forefathers. For a humanistic government is the power, and the deliverance and the way for America, for the glory of the strongest (i.e. "fittest"), Amen.
Follow the Bible.
Perhaps you didn't put enough words into your post. Much of the list should be regulated. Not run by government employees. Big difference. I struck from the list what isn't a part of the mandate of direct function. In case you ddint' notice. Since this thread was about what should government do.
God never said that, you are just repeating a libertarian mantra of wanting heroine use and pimping to be legal. And don't even know it.
Lets expand Knights original thought. We know the role, how is it to function. Under one monarch. He should delegate authority to a governor over territory based on population. That governor answers to the monarch. Authority flows down hill, not the other way. And I have news for you, that is exactly what God will do. Not all people are corrupt to the same level. God says this. Shame on you for repeating evil people as though God agrees.
lucy
New member
Do you have any idea how much that would cost? :think: First there's a Department of Maximee's Privacy. Then there's the oversight committee and the rules committee to draft the necessary regulations/restrictions/rules of comportment for the oversight committee, which I suppose would need to be reviewed by...probably another committee.
oly:
elohiym
Well-known member
Some have claimed that government should provide infrastructure without defining what they mean by infrastructure. All I did was provide a list of sectors in our national infrastructure. I wasn't saying that government should provide that extensive infrastructure, just answering Kmoney's question about the possible definition of infrastructure.
You said God was corrupt. He has absolute power.
And your statement is huge tagline for libertarians. And you swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.
Son of Jack
New member
And of course...
And of course...
Of course I would need a committee to make sure that Maximee doesn't stick his nose into my business...I can see a veritable cornucopia of committees tending to the individual's business. But gee, that just about cover's what is going on in our government today! peace, bybee
And of course...
Do you have any idea how much that would cost? :think: First there's a Department of Maximee's Privacy. Then there's the oversight committee and the rules committee to draft the necessary regulations/restrictions/rules of comportment for the oversight committee, which I suppose would need to be reviewed by...probably another committee.
Of course I would need a committee to make sure that Maximee doesn't stick his nose into my business...I can see a veritable cornucopia of committees tending to the individual's business. But gee, that just about cover's what is going on in our government today! peace, bybee
To protect the weak and powerless from those that would harm others. To protect and save the poor from being beat down by those that would use their power take advantage them. To protect the workers from corporate interests and a run away free market. To provide a justice system that is for all people.
To save us from a some idiotic religious system that wants to control everyone by controlling the government.
To save us from a some idiotic religious system that wants to control everyone by controlling the government.
Wow...just wow...
you have been here long enough not to be wowed by that
Son of Jack
New member
So God doesn't have absolute power. Wow. Just wow.
I was wowed by the non-sequitur in your thought. She said that man is corrupt and that absolute power corrupts absolutely...the fact that you couldn't connect the dots was kind of astounding to me...
Of course, God has absolute power. Do you believe that He is corrupt?
There are no dots to connect, because she stated a falsehood. And the only person with absolute power is God. And she said aboslute power corrupts absolutely. An absolutely false statement.
Son of Jack
New member
Never mind....:bang:
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