The only effective protection against the government Steve Saville

email: sas888_hk@yahoo.com

Posted Mar 28, 2011 Big government is always a problem, but it is a problem that 'we the people' willingly bring on ourselves. The root cause of government growth beyond its proper boundaries is the widespread desire for a powerful leader that promises greater security, even if the security comes at the expense of some individual freedoms. It has been proven, time and time again, that the democratic process is not an effective protection against bad government and does not limit the expansion of government. As put succinctly by H.L.Mencken: "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." In a democracy, people generally attain positions of political power by promising benefits to one group at the expense of another group. This process tends to result in the gradual increase in government power during normal times and the rapid increase in government power during times of hardship or crisis (during periods of hardship or crisis, the population is generally more amenable to giving up freedoms in exchange for security). Eventually, the government has so much power that the democratically-elected head of state is, for all intents and purposes, a dictator. From then on, the democratic process involves the election of a new dictator every few years. It has also been proven, most notably via the US experience, that a constitution does not offer long-lasting protection against the expansion of government power. The US Constitution held up reasonably well until the 1930s, but the combination of an economic depression and an ambitious, popular and totally unprincipled president quickened the pace at which the government's role deviated from that envisaged by the Founding Fathers. Some Americans still have a strong belief in the principles upon which their Constitution is based, but the Constitution has almost no practical relevance in today's political realm. The reality is that almost everything the US government does these days is unconstitutional. The only truly effective way to restrain government and to protect the population from its own willingness to give up freedoms in exchange for security is to ensure that the government stays out of the money business. The government's ability to expand its reach will be severely limited if it has no authority to determine what is or isn't money, to increase the supply of money (either directly or via a central bank), or to regulate money in any way. ### Steve Saville

email: sas888_hk@yahoo.com

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