Understanding Government: Conclusion

Having relevant information about government makes it possible to draw some conclusions.

SUMMARY OF INFORMATION

Government is an organization that has a near monopoly on the use of force in a given geographical region. Government actions depend on the use or threat of violence. Government is less effective than the free market because government employees do not bear responsibility for their actions, while private actors do.

The most dramatic example of the destructive power of government is democide. This murder of civilians by government took the lives of 262 million people in the twentieth century. War, which is a government program, killed an additional 36 million people in the twentieth century.

Taxes, which are an inevitable activity of government, are forcible theft that make people poorer. Governments take trillions of dollars in taxes each year. Taxes in turn fund government spending, and taxes and spending are inevitable partners. Redistribution is a major goal of government spending, though it ends up making almost everyone poorer. Redistribution tends to run up massive debt, which can lead to economic collapse. Plenty government spending is wasted on bureaucracy, which causes more harm through perverse incentives. Government regulation is a combination of taxation and spending, and it causes further harm through more perverse incentives.

Law and Order is an essential feature of government, and can benefit society, but only if the rule of law and civil liberties are protected. Control of borders and immigration is also an issue that government must address, but perverse government policies in this arena can hurt people as well.

Different forms of government can modify, but not eliminate, these problems. Democracies mostly do not fight wars or commit democide, but they are more likely to engage in redistribution. Decentralization is closer to freedom and so lessens the harm that government causes in several ways. Limited Government would minimize this harm as much as possible, but is difficult to achieve and maintain.

Government is wasteful under the best of circumstances, but it can be much worse. It can be intentionally cruel, tyrannical, and destructive. Moreover, government is a perpetual target of ideological activists yearning to impose their visions on society. Government power is incredibly dangerous.

THE COST OF GOVERNMENT

The cost of government is probably far higher than almost anyone imagines. There is the cost in lives, not only war and democide, but also government regulations that lead to thousands (or millions) of deaths. It is difficult to estimate the financial cost of government. How many trillions (quadrillions?) of dollars of wealth has been destroyed or not created because of government?

Further, wealth saves lives. People in wealthy countries live longer because they can afford safer cars and houses, better health care, better public health, environmental protection, and more. Thus government taxes, spending, and regulation can be said to cost still more lives. Estimating this cost is difficult, but nothing else causes more harm.

Government causes almost endless problems. Examining a problem seems to always reveal the influence of government. It may be that every problem in society is either caused or exacerbated by government.

Despite all the harm that government causes, some form of government is all but inevitable. Government appears to be the only entity capable of providing some essential services, including military protection, police protection, courts, border control, and roads.

MORAL JUSTIFICATION

Another topic of inquiry is the moral justification of government.

One alternative that must be rejected is statism, also called positive law. This theory says that anything the government does is justified because it is the government. But this would justify all the crimes and horrors committed by government. It cannot be correct.

Another theory is that government is justified by the consent of the governed. This is fine if people consent to a specific policy, but it raises questions if it means that people give an all-or-nothing consent to government that overrides their non-consent to specific actions of government. It further raises questions as to when and how people consent, and whether people can refuse to consent or withdraw their consent. Most people don't explicitly sign a contract, so is living in a society implicitly consenting?

An extension of the previous theory is that people are morally obligated to support government in the cases when a free market alternative is impossible or unworkable. This obligation would not extend to other areas, and would disappear if government ceased to perform these functions.
Another alternative is that government is never morally justified. If this is true, it does not necessarily imply that people are morally obligated to support anarchy, since the existence of government appears all but inevitable. Instead, the best policy would be to minimize government to limit the damage it causes.

SUPPORT FOR GOVERNMENT

Given the harm that government causes, why do people support it? There are several reasons.

People who work for the government support it because they get money or power from it. Many of them also believe that it is effective.

Many people hold statist ideologies that insist that government is essential for a wide range of functions. Ideologies are very powerful. History has shown that people will believe practically anything.

Beyond this, it is often difficult to connect government actions to negative effects. This can be done with reason and economic analysis, as in this series, but most people fail to make the necessary connections. Also, if government performs a task, many people fail to see how it could be done in the free market, and they think that if they cannot see how it can be done, it most not be possible.

Government is also supported by a massive amount of propaganda. Governments put a lot of effort into convincing people that they are necessary and that people should support them. People who receive government money and ideological supporters of government also contribute to the propaganda. If public opinion were to turn against a government program, it would have a difficult time continuing to exist.

CONCLUSION

If there is one lesson that should be learned from this series, it is to think about the consequences of government actions. Having good intentions does not necessarily lead to good results.

Analyzing government shows that the results of government programs are almost always negative. Any proposal for government action should be viewed very sceptically.