From: jimbell@pacifier.com (Jim Bell)
Date: Thu, 1 May 1997 11:42:51 +0800
To: Kent Crispin <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: Rejecting Dialog with Government Vermin
Message-ID: <199705010328.UAA19126@mail.pacifier.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 23:07 4/29/97 -0700, Kent Crispin wrote:

>3) There is no serious flaw -- the current government isn't as
>bad as we claim.  Or, put another way, the evils we see are a function
>of size of government, and size of government is more a function of
>population than anything else -- the larger the population, the 
>larger the government.
>
>I think that strong arguments could be made for any of these, though #3 
>would be shouted down in this forum.

I disagree that a "strong argument" could be made for item #3.  Sure, some
people would strenuously ATTEMPT to make that argument, but they would fail
miserably.  

I feel confident that a statistical analysis of various countries'
governments would reveal a wide scatter in the relationship between
population and government size.  One of the main factors in this scatter is
simply the amount that government has decided to butt into activities that
could (and should) be privatized.   Another is the amount that the
government steals from one group in order to reliably receive the votes of
some other group.

Population size would end up being a very poor determinant of government size.




Jim Bell
jimbell@pacifier.com