What does the president of the US (whoever that might be) actually DO that improves your life and helps provide the essentials necessary for survival? What would you like him (or her) to do that would improve your life without harming anyone else. Is that even possible? You don’t really want to harm other people, do you?

Think about it.

Nothing at all comes to my mind. In fact, I can think of dozens of things various presidents have done over the years that did exactly the opposite. Those actions damaged my ability to live peacefully and productively, and managed to harm a great many other people as well, in my name and with money stolen from me.

Same for the Vice President, the congress, the courts. Think of all the other politicians and bureaucrats in Washington D. C. What do any of them do that actually promotes peace and prosperity, and harms nobody? I can’t think of anything they do to improve my life either.

Take a look at the politicians and bureaucrats that control the state government. The county? How about the cities, towns and wide spots in the road. All of those folks are promoting peace, freedom, creation of wealth and providing services everyone is glad to have and pay for? No?

Representative government is the silly notion that ordinary people are too evil and stupid to control their own lives and property, but are smart and good enough to elect others (just like them) to do it for them!

So, what would happen if the politicians and bureaucrats were all fired and required to find honest jobs? Would your life suffer? Would you be unable to live in peace with your neighbors? If so, I wonder why. Might it be because you actually benefit in some way from the coercion and theft that originates in Washington – or city hall? Surely not…

It’s hard to pin down exact statistics on government “jobs,” since no two sources tabulate it the same, but this is a fairly good overview. That’s an awful lot of people producing little or nothing. What IS IT all these people are doing? For whom? Why?

Think about it!

Every source I did look at indicated that government employment was an important and beneficial part of the economy, but I think that needs to be looked at a little more closely. There is benefit, no doubt, to those who receive a paycheck, and at least the appearance of benefit when they spend that money, but it is best to look at the big picture and realize some hard truths.

When you produce something, like food or clothing, machines or even widgets, you are making something that you and other people want and need. Why else would you make it? Those others are willing to exchange the things they produce for the things you make, whether directly or through a medium of exchange such as “money.” We won’t discuss money here, but that is another fruitful avenue to explore, and an important part of the big picture.

Production of things people want to buy is the creation of wealth. Taking raw materials and making things is the first essential step. When people have created enough wealth beyond their immediate needs, they can begin to exchange some of that wealth for services and even abstract things such as art and music. They will have enough excess to provide for children, their elderly, and others of the community who cannot support themselves.

So, the question is now, just what product or service does the government produce that people need and want, that creates wealth? What does government do that encourages others to create wealth? What do government employees do that you value enough to pay for out of your saved wealth? Is there anything the government claims to do – those things you want done – that could not be done without an involuntary government monopoly?

Are you prepared to go up to the courthouse and buy some new restrictions on how you use your property? Do you really want to buy a “permit” to own a dog, a chicken, or a gun? How much longer before you need permission to even have a child? You’ve already lost most of your natural authority over whatever children you already have. Think not?

Do you need a politician’s permission to defend your life or that of your child from attack? Is theft ever justified? Who owns your life and body? Why would you need or want your every activity to be tracked, “registered,” and regulated?

Do you volunteer to pay as much tax as possible so your life can be controlled, in excruciating detail, by bureaucrats who laugh in your face when you complain about mistakes they make? Are they mistakes?

Seems inescapable that non-voluntary government does not create any wealth at all. It does not provide anything, even those things people truly want and need, without theft, coercion and fraud.

And the worst of all is the presumption of this non-voluntary government that all of the people and all of their property is actually owned by the government itself. Remember that control is the essence of ownership. The proof of this is the very fact that ordinary people cannot exempt themselves, can’t opt out, cannot say, “no thank you” when the tax man comes around selling his “services.” Nobody can choose not to be robbed, controlled and defrauded by their benevolent government.

If you don’t believe that, just consider what happens if you don’t allow the theft of your goods, the sale of your home for “back taxes,” or refuse to obey the commands of the elite “rulers.” If you resist, they will put you in a cage. If you resist that strongly enough, they will kill you. And they might just kill you anyway…

America, the land of the free.

Think about it.