The Role of Government
DocBrain believes that the role of government is to serve the best interests of the citizens. This is the only role of government. If the government seems to pursue some other action, then it's officials and/or bureaucrats are being influenced by non-citizens and this is wrong. Members of governments can succumb to fear or bribery. Beyond that, we hope that those who are in a position to exert coercive force over us are honest in their own personal lives, at least within the realm that they enslave us.
The best interest of the citizens isn't always the same as satisfying the immediate desires of individual citizens, but more a framework under which citizens can maximize their individual outcomes to the advantage of themselves and the higher purposes they live for. It is the stucture under which citizens can achieve happiness without being subject to bribery, fear and violence. Since the government controls the public coffers and law enforcement, the government is the one place where bribery, violence and instillation of fear exists. It is critical that laws and regulations be applied fairly and equally, that public officials who request or accept any form of bribery be removed from office. It is critical that the laws and regulations serve the citizens' best interest. No other priority matters.
The current policy towards illegal aliens is a case in point.
No one can argue that there is a net positivity to the citizens of the USA of allowing felonious aliens to remain in the country(while this would allow employment of a few additional prison guards and police, it increases overall costs and fear among the citizens as a whole and cannot be defended rationally).
What best interests of the citizens are served by allowing illegal (but non-felonious) aliens to remain in the country? For some, there is cheap labor, but for others (citizens who are unemployed) there is hardship as they must compete for jobs against those who can accept less. There are secondary issues, such as paying out of the public coffers for food, shelter, health care, education, police and fire protection of those who are honest, illegal and unemployed. This does not serve the citizens. On the other hand, providing these goods and services increases employment of citizens. It is important in any discussion of this on a governmental level to consider only the viewpoint of the citizens, the best interests of the citizens. The best interests of others is never to be a governmental concern except in how it might be beneficial to the best interests of the citizens.
The bottom line is that when a politician speaks about anything in the context of a viewpoint other than the best interests of the citizens, that politician is not doing his duty. Whenever a bureaucrat acts to enforce a rule or regulation that does not further the best interests of the public, she is not doing her job. Whenever a politician pits one citizen against another, that politician is also not doing his job, as laws have the main mission of the best interests of the citizens, not the majority, not the minority, not the rich, not the poor, not the members of any race, national origin or religion, not one sex or another, not one sexual orientation or another, not one age or another. Other than preventing one citizen (or group) from exerting coercion (bribery, fear or violence) against another, there is little else that government has the right to do. What about biases? Biases exist in everyone. The best interest of the citizens is not so much to force people to act unbiased (ie, race/sex/age quotas) as this pits one citizen against another, but to encourage education and familiarity to open lines of communication and to allow the citizens to achieve their own best outcomes through growth of commonality and relationships.
The best interest of the citizens isn't always the same as satisfying the immediate desires of individual citizens, but more a framework under which citizens can maximize their individual outcomes to the advantage of themselves and the higher purposes they live for. It is the stucture under which citizens can achieve happiness without being subject to bribery, fear and violence. Since the government controls the public coffers and law enforcement, the government is the one place where bribery, violence and instillation of fear exists. It is critical that laws and regulations be applied fairly and equally, that public officials who request or accept any form of bribery be removed from office. It is critical that the laws and regulations serve the citizens' best interest. No other priority matters.
The current policy towards illegal aliens is a case in point.
No one can argue that there is a net positivity to the citizens of the USA of allowing felonious aliens to remain in the country(while this would allow employment of a few additional prison guards and police, it increases overall costs and fear among the citizens as a whole and cannot be defended rationally).
What best interests of the citizens are served by allowing illegal (but non-felonious) aliens to remain in the country? For some, there is cheap labor, but for others (citizens who are unemployed) there is hardship as they must compete for jobs against those who can accept less. There are secondary issues, such as paying out of the public coffers for food, shelter, health care, education, police and fire protection of those who are honest, illegal and unemployed. This does not serve the citizens. On the other hand, providing these goods and services increases employment of citizens. It is important in any discussion of this on a governmental level to consider only the viewpoint of the citizens, the best interests of the citizens. The best interests of others is never to be a governmental concern except in how it might be beneficial to the best interests of the citizens.
The bottom line is that when a politician speaks about anything in the context of a viewpoint other than the best interests of the citizens, that politician is not doing his duty. Whenever a bureaucrat acts to enforce a rule or regulation that does not further the best interests of the public, she is not doing her job. Whenever a politician pits one citizen against another, that politician is also not doing his job, as laws have the main mission of the best interests of the citizens, not the majority, not the minority, not the rich, not the poor, not the members of any race, national origin or religion, not one sex or another, not one sexual orientation or another, not one age or another. Other than preventing one citizen (or group) from exerting coercion (bribery, fear or violence) against another, there is little else that government has the right to do. What about biases? Biases exist in everyone. The best interest of the citizens is not so much to force people to act unbiased (ie, race/sex/age quotas) as this pits one citizen against another, but to encourage education and familiarity to open lines of communication and to allow the citizens to achieve their own best outcomes through growth of commonality and relationships.
posted by DocBrain at
4:59 AM
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