Friday, April 17, 2009

Limits of Government

Quote today from Abe Lincoln is
"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other man's consent."
I Assume this was in relation to his position on slavery and it certainly sounds good, but wasn't the whole point of the Civil War to impose the right of the Union to govern the Southern States without their consent? I believe the argument was that they had consented when they joined the Union and couldn't dissolve that relationship. However, they lost and were clearly governed without their current consent for at least a while.
The limits of Government always seem to be tricky. I lean towards libertarianism, but there is no doubt a need for collective action. Would be hard to maintain a national highway system without some sort of government involvement. Also, certainly is a good idea to provide protective services (police, fire etc.)
Just random thoughts now but worthy of further exploration.

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