“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” Thomas Paine
Our nation has seen many changes in the last sixty years, and few for the better. Federal power has become more centralized. More and more Washington seems a government distant and out of touch with the wishes of average Americans, and my how it has grown.
As a non-productive enterprise, growth of government puts a damper on our economy. The only thing that government produces is more government. While it acts as a machine for consumption it adds nothing to our market economy. Large government impoverishes us.
Read David Brooks op-ed piece below.
The Vermont Farmer's Blog 
My feelings exactly
It is amazing how many folks just don’t get this point either–that more government is a never ending cycle that taps additional resources and leads to the desire for more taxiation and of course more goverment.
David Brooks writes about the increase in Government control and centralization based within a process of considering outcome through new policies, rules and regulations. He then concludes without a position and raises question as to the “right” principle associated with the debate to an outcome based conclusion.
I know it is difficult for the “Vermontian” to fathom this, but, the fact is that Mr. Brooks and those like him are the problem. (See below).
The fact is that issues over freedom, personal liberty, personal responsibility, law and self governance are as old as time. These issues are as old as time. Today, we want to believe that we are different and that our actions may have different conclusions then, I don’t know, say, “Rome” or the USSR, or Israel or Turkey or most recently Greece. The Founding of this Nation was based within a series of inalienable rights. They are fundamental, so simple and so true. I tend to believe that these ideas were not a conclusion of speed reading by our Founding Fathers and they were not part of an active test based within some sociological tube. Rather, they are innate, inseparable from our humanity. They can be relied upon. They are our rights not as Americans but as children of God, our Creator. So that when we fail to govern, we the people, whioch is really nothing more than I the person, can say that I can fix this by disciplining myself to do less, to do without, to work harder, to make ends meet, to treat people with respect and to beleive in the Golden rule or rules. Until we begin beleiving in and relaying upon ourselves, our person then we wil continue to fail. It is truly that simple. You simply cannot give away the responsibilites to anyone else or (Big Brother)and expect a positive outcome. It has never happened in history, it has never hapened in our private lives and it is simmply a foolish thought to beleive that any other conclusion could occur.
So, Mr. Brooks and anyone else who cares to know. Stop waiting for a result. Stop relying upon theorist spinning experiments in social behavior. Instead, stand upon principles, vote to support those principles, fight when those freedoms are toyed with and speak clearly against the hypothetical and for the right action based upon truth.
Mr. Brooks, To even rasie the two scenarios as a pass or fail shows a great lack of reason, understanding and the influence the libral eastcoast and the talking elite has on our media. WE DO NOT THINK!
This progressive era amounts to a high-stakes test. If the country remains safe and the health care and financial reforms work, then we will have witnessed a life-altering event. We’ll have received powerful evidence that central regulations can successfully organize fast-moving information-age societies.
If the reforms fail — if they kick off devastating unintended consequences or saddle the country with a maze of sclerotic regulations — then the popular backlash will be ferocious. Large sectors of the population will feel as if they were subjected to a doomed experiment they did not consent to. They will feel as if their country has been hijacked by a self-serving professional class mostly interested in providing for themselves.
If the country feels that they have been “hijacked by a self-serving professional class most interested in providing for themselves,” then Americans will have finally recognized the truth.
I have much faith in the American people, but our government has indeed “fooled most of the people most of the time,” for the last 100 years. The charade, however, is about to end. When the dollar fails, and I have little doubt that it will fail, Americans will see the truth… and I don’t think that it will be pretty.