What Limits Government - Part 3

 

But let's try to focus a little more precisely here.

What do we mean by "big" government?  What do we mean by government "growing"?  And what do we mean by "limit"?

I want to clarify that, although I insist that there is no way to stop government from growing, nonetheless, in a manner of speaking, there are indeed "limits" to government.  As I've already mentioned, ideology matters - not so much in terms of determining the size of government, but in helping to shape what that government does.  Even more than ideology, something that limits - or at least guides - what a government does is a sense of honor.

This is particularly true in times of war - which is almost all of the time, when governments exist.  Unlimited war is very rare.  Limited war is the rule, not the exception.  Almost all wars are profoundly limited.

Just because government always gets bigger does not mean that it gets more powerful, or more effective.  Quite the opposite is true, in fact.

Often government gets bigger and more bloated without becoming in any way more powerful.  Which suits me perfectly fine, in my opinion.  I'd much rather live under a big, ineffective government than under a small, powerful, efficient one.

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