Government Gets Bigger, Not Smaller!

Government gets bigger, not smaller. It takes far more to decrease the size of government than increase it. Think about the new deal act. Many people think it helped fix the great depression, but really all it did was grow government. That's why Obama has his own "new deal." It's also why we haven't began recovery. The following is my reasoning on the subject.

1. Politicians have a vested interest in larger government.

More Power

The larger the government the more control it has. The more control it has over regulations, industry, and individuals lives, the more power they have. Power corrupts because it brings money and ego.

More Dependents

The larger the government welfare programs are, the larger the number of people that accept aid from the government. This leads to them being dependent on the government. When someone is dependent on government they will vote for the politicians promising to protect or increase government aid. Power hungry politicians gravitate to this kind of politics causing government to grow whenever those individuals are in power.

More Money

Congress has made insider trading LEGAL for themselves. If I gave a congressman $10,000 cash, he and I would go to jail. If I gave them stock options on a IPO (initial public offering) that were worth $100,000 it would be perfectly legal.

If a congressman is writing a law that affects the financial industry or even a specific company, they can legally trade on the information they acquire while that law is being written. If you or I had the same knowledge and traded on it, we would go to jail. This is only one example of the corruption in Washington that allows congressmen to enter congress with a net worth of $0 and leave a few years later millionaires.

2. Once expenses are established they are not removed. Politicians don't dare face the backlash of cutting benefits of their constituents. Just look at Greece and the EU.

• Greece is trying to cut government expenses (ie austerity). An example of this is Greece trying to raise the retirement age from 58 or 61 to 63. 
• These kind of cuts are causing citizens to rebel. Is 63 such a late retirement? Is it unacceptable? Only to people that have been planning on retiring at 58. 
• Cutting government programs risks angering constituants. Politicians want to be reelected, so they don't want to risk this.

3. Politicians want to bring money to their districts so they have something show for their service.

When politicians head to Washington they bring a standard quo that measures the politicians performance in the amount of money they get the federal government to spend in their district. When politicians write a law, the goal isn't governance. The goal is getting money to their district usually in some form of earmark. This is another reason why expenses continually rise.

4. Name one government that got smaller on it's own.

• USSR?
• China?
• North Corea?
• Greece?

It doesn't happen. That's why Greece is struggling so much. It is a one way cycle. They never get smaller on their own. They only get smaller when they fail by revolution, war, or economic collapse. 

In conclusion, history can give you an idea of where we are headed. It can't predict the future, but it gives us a general direction. It only get's worse from here.

It is imperative that you be smart and thrive.