When I asked myself what is wrong with our current government in America I thought it was necessary to ask what the purpose of a government was. So I did, and I came to this conclusion.

The purpose of a government is to protect and promote the welfare of it's citizens.

While these two things can encompass alot I believe the government should concern themselves with those two things and nothing else.

Now I'm curious to what other people think the purpose of the government is. Do you agree with my statement or do you think there is more too it or less to it (in general of course)?

establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity

why not.

You've got a definition that no one is going to disagree with.
The problem is that different people have different ideas of what protecting the people and promoting their welfare entails and how much should be done.

__________________
"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III

Ok well my point of view is as follows then:

Welfare:
government supplied healthcare
government supplied education (everything including college and technical school)

Protection:
Military of course
"Bad" immigrants (criminals)
harmful foreign ideas (anarchy for example)

Even then, it tends to get deeper. And as for the protection from "harmful foreign ideas" that creates a collision between protecting rights of individuals and protecting national security... And I'm of the school that believes it is pointless to protect us from other ideologies. In open discussion, they succeed or fail on their own merit. Freedom of speech keeps revolutionaries using legal channels instead of violence. I'd limit the government's role on that to outlawing the direct advocation of violent overthrow or violent discourse.
As for the others... What does it mean for the government to provide healthcare or education? Should it universalize and nationalize them, make policies to incite market forces to improve them and make them available to all, or give public services to the very poor while allowing the well-off to choose their own in the private sector?
What purpose does the military have, an interventionist or domestic one?
These are the points where it gets more confusing.

I think in general people believe they know a violation of roles when they see it rather than having very specific criteria. That's what makes it so messy.

__________________
"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III

Education and healthcare will be provided (state funded and state ran), but of course if will leave open the ability for people to still privatize the area if they so choose. So if they want to pay to go to a Catholic school or a certain private doctor they can, but if they don't there will be state schools and state doctors.

Talking about protecting from "harful foreign ideas" it's hard to say, it's one of those things that are better left vauge because it can become too detailed. But for example, a large number of immigrants come into the country and preech anarchy, this would be seen as illegal.

You have to ask the question, where is the line between personal freedom and protection of it's citizens? Unfortunately everyone's opinion on that is different.

On regards to the military it focus should be on protecting our country and it's citizens, exactly how the situation would most likely dictate. But to put perspective on it, I don't think the Iraq war would be something to happen in this ideal government.

That is a new definition of the word, "Welfare." There wasn't even a shadow of a whisper of that meaning 200 years ago.

I don't know if this re-definining of this word is deliberate propaganda of the evil left, or just pure dumb luck, but Democrats are evil.

What's so bad about it?

double post

The main purpose of government is to secure the rights and liberty of its people and its posterity.

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WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH