From: norm@netcom.com (Norman Hardy)
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 18:15:47 PST
To: <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: why govt's get bigger
Message-ID: <199401150215.SAA07505@mail.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At  0:05 1/14/94 -0500, gregguy@aol.com wrote:
>frode@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Frode Odegard) asked the rather sweeping question of
>why governments get bigger.
>
>Actually, this is one of the great (but often unsung) libertarian  proofs.
>Governments act as any rational being acts -- in their own self interest. As
>the distillers of laws and collectors of taxes, however, they just have a
>better shot at self-interest nirvanna than the rest of us.
>
>//greg brooks (gregguy@aol.com   PGP key available on keyservers)

Any sucessful biological entity acts in its own self interest. It need not
be logical or concious. The libertarian would call the governement a
parasite. The book Bionomics by Rothchild examines this anology in detail.