Article 1: Introduction to Better Government

Each citizen has their own individual experiences, feelings, and expectations of government and its role in their life and in the lives of others. Politics is the negotiation of the rules and laws that apply to each citizen and defines how that citizen interacts with all other citizens. The government is the means by which these rules and laws are applied and enforced. Government should be used to provide for the common defense of each citizen from harm by another and to provide for the common good of all citizens.

As citizens of the community in which we live, each of us has a very simple and well defined relationship and interaction with the government:

- Each citizen is subject to, and the beneficiary of Law and Order.
- Each citizen receives Government Services for both individual and common benefit.
- Each citizen pays both direct and indirect Taxes to the government.
- Each citizen has the right to Vote for their representatives in government.

This description of politics and government applies to every type of government, at every level of government, in every country in the world. Unfortunately, the government can also be used by one group of citizens, with either good or bad intentions, to control the lives of other citizens.

Political discussions normally use terms such as liberal and conservative that have been so misused and misapplied as to have lost all meaning. Conservatives, liberals, and libertarians have different expectations of government and the government will reflect the values, wants, and needs of the citizens of that community. When government is used to affect the behavior of citizens it is considered a Social issue. Social conservatives use government to write laws that tell citizens how they must conduct their life and social liberals use government to compensate citizens for the negative consequences of their actions.

Social libertarians believe that each citizen has the right to live their life as they want as long as they do not harm someone else and that each citizen must be responsible for the consequences of their actions. When a citizen asks for help to defend themselves, the government has the right and obligation to intervene to stop the citizen(s) that is committing the harm and to seek compensation for the victim. The definition of harm must be limited to assault, theft, and fraud so that all citizens can understand their obligation to other citizens and to the society. Laws that are written to prevent a citizen from harming themselves will always fail because it will shift the responsibility from the person who is doing harm to themselves, to the government for not stopping them. Laws must always be defined and enforced locally to be effective. The laws that are agreeable to one community cannot be enforced on another community that does not believe in those laws.

The methods and distribution of government taxation and spending are fiscal (money) issues. Fiscal conservatives believe that the government should not provide any direct services to citizens and fiscal liberals use the government to provide the free lunch to preferred citizens at the expense of the non-preferred citizens.

Fiscal libertarians believe that Government Services should be used primarily for the general benefit of all citizens and not used for the benefit of one citizen or group of citizens at the expense of all others. Government Services may be used to provide emergency relief and recovery in the case of a disaster but must not used to carry a capable citizen through life. Government Services spending should be equalized per person to the local level with local determination of how that money is spent to meet the community’s needs. Unequal per capita distribution of government resources creates dissent in the communities that are not receiving an equal share.

Both Law and Order and Government Services cost money that must be collected from all citizens in the form of taxes. Social and Fiscal libertarians believe that all citizens receive the benefits of good government and therefore all citizens should pay their share of taxes for those benefits and no citizen should be exempt from taxation.

I hope this first article gives you a general overview of what government could be if the proper principles were implemented. My intent is to write a series of articles to define what good government should be and what characteristics good government should have, and why, in very simple and easy to understand terms. My hope is that this will provide the citizen with a guide to what they should and should not expect from the government and what ideas and qualities they should look for when they vote for government representatives.

I am very interested in your feedback but I ask that your criticism be constructive and non-personal. Please recommend any issues or topics about politics and government that you would like to be discussed.