Do people truly want the government to not interfere in their lives?
This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the Municipal Water Utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of food inspected by the US Department of Agriculture and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration. At the appropriate time as regulated by the US Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory, I got into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-approved automobile and set out to work on the roads built by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issed by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door, I deposited the mail I needed to send out via the US Postal Service and dropped the kids off at the public school. After spending another day of not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, I enjoyed another two meals which again did not kill me because of the USDA. I drove my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which had not burned down during my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal's inspection, and which had not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local Police Department. I then logged on to the Internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and posted on Yahoo! Answers about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.
Why do so many people want the government to take care of them today?
Wow! Talk about “loaded language”. Loaded language is when you say something and the language you use has all sorts of assumptions built into it. In this case your question is partially a statement that says: “Too many people” “want too much” from “someone else”. To answer your question honestly, we have to deal with those assumptions.First, are there too many people wanting something? How many would be not “too many”? Well, to answer that you’d have to decide whether the question is “how many is too many?” or “how badly off does someone have to be to need some help?” America nowadays is suffering from a tremendous growth in inequality, poverty, and, insecurity. The richest people in the country own more and more of the nation’s wealth. The minimum wage is far lower in constant dollars than it was 20 years ago. And more and more people don’t have steady work and instead have to juggle contract work or several part time jobs. For people like that, programs like food stamps can make a huge difference for things like putting food on the table versus going without.Second, how much should people want? We live in a world where there really is no absolute, physical reason why people should be doing without a certain standard of living. There are mountains of food, there are robots in factories that can produce huge amounts of goods, productivity has gone up and up for decades. And yet, wages have stagnated, and social programs been cut. There is still lots of wealth being created, but because of tax cut after tax cut, all of this prosperity has only gone to the few. People forget that under President Eisenhower, for example, the top tax rate as over 80%—but there was close to 100% employment. Why can’t we have that now?I’ve found that most people view issues like the ones raised in your question as questions of “values”—what you build your life around. But in actual fact, they are only really answered through doing research. “The devil is in the details” as Ross Perot would say. I believe if you look into the economics, you will find that people are not asking for “too much” from the government, but that the wealthy are refusing to do “their fair share” and are acting like parasites on society. But there’s no way a Quora answer will convince anyone. You have to do a lot of research.
Do Chinese people fear their government?
No - having lived in China, my impression has always been that the relation between Chinese people and the Chinese government is more like that of a 9grown up or toddler) child with its responsible parent. There is a little fear - but this is “good fear” and not the “scared” kind of fear.For example, when common Chinese people talk and deal with government representatives, they do so on a more one to one basis than is prevalent in most developing countries where there is a large gap between the government and people.In fact, many Chinese people are openly and audibly (at times pretty loudly!) critical of anything that a person in the government does, that is detrimental to people. And I have never seen a police or government person misuse his / her power openly or arrogantly (sure - they misuse it just like an American or Brit or Indian politician misuses hi / her power - but never openly or arrogantly as one sees in some otehr countries)One major difference between Chinese people and other nations is that most Chinese people themselves are members of the Communist party (all my friends had to become members as soon as they passed out of school. Some became active while others just treated it as a formality). Hence, there is less of a power gap in China.I think many of use westerners forget that the Chinese form of governance has evolved over the past six decades, after having been tempered through some brutal storms. Chinese communism is as different from North Korean or Vietnamese or Cuban or Soviet communism, as American democracy is different from teh democracy practised in Nigeria.It is for this reason that people in CCTV often call the Chinese system of governance as “Chinese communism” - it has hefty doses of capitalism and democracy. Much more than I saw, for example, in the UK.
Why do conservatives claim to be for small government, yet want to control people's private lives?
Another lib question that makes a wrong-headed assertion. Conservatives don’t want to control people’s private lives, they are concerned with public life.Some conservatives object to abortion, some object to gay marriage, some object to having transgender people join the military or use the bathroom of the opposite sex, some object to letting very young children choose what sex they want to be regardless of their biological sex, & some don’t want to cater gay weddings. The GOP isn’t of one mind about these issues and many Democrats are pro-life and against gay marriage etc. None of these beliefs are about controlling anyone’s “private” life. In the case of abortion- they are concerned about the life of an unborn baby. In LGBTQ issues- they are about asking whether private behavior made public can negatively affect society.We no longer really discuss these issues directly. They have become political hand grenades where the left lobs out questions such as this one and play the sexism card and identity politics. No one can truly be pro-abortion. I think most of us can all agree that abortion is a “bad” thing and that, ideally, abortion should rarely be necessary because men & women are extremely careful to avoid unintended pregnancies. Would outlawing abortion bring about a new wave of morality or fastidious birth control? or just a new wave of women dying from illegal, unsanitary abortions? They say “you can’t legislate morality;” we may be able to deduce the answer to that question. The libertarian conservatives want people to be free to live their lives as they wish. But realize that in so doing, societal issues affecting the public may arise that should be examined.Conservatives do believe in a small federal government with only the few powers given to it in our Constitution. Liberals are much more interested in controlling the private lives of individuals. The issues mentioned here aren’t about big vs. small government, they’re about personal freedom, life, liberty, and happiness, and a strong, united country. Somehow we need for Americans and our Congress to get back to civil debate on all issues that arise.
Was Reagan correct that "Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives."?
Yes, and the last time I checked the fridge there were six eggs in there, not half a dozen. How absurd! The precise method by which government protects some people is by incentivising others to not do what they’d otherwise want to do. After all, if nobody wanted to hurt you (wilfully or accidentally), you wouldn’t need protection, would you?So the government protects children’s intellectual development by telling those damned right wing fundies / left wing brainwashers what they will and won’t say in class.The government protects your lunchbox from contamination by telling thousands of grocers to throw out heads of lettuce that look perfectly edible.The government protects pedestrians and drivers by preventing other drivers from driving too fast or too drunk.The government protects you from murderers and rapists by telling them, oh so nicely, to move house into dingy apartment blocks internally decorated with awfully obtrusive metal grilles everywhere.The government protects you from bridge collapses and dam failures by telling engineers (via nice wads of cash) to go check them and keep them working. (Or at least it used to! But Infrastructure Week is over now.)And conservatives are no less eager to tell people what to do in the name of protection. They would like the government to protect unborn children by telling pregnant mothers to carry them to term. Or protect the profits of corporate suits by telling workers not to negotiate collectively for what’s theirs. These days they even protect American jobs by telling companies not to invest overseas!And yes, libertarians, even you want the government to protect you by telling people to obey contracts. Which might not sound so difficult — until you realise that the current President of the United States is a swindler whose most polished business skill is the brazen non-payment of contractors. But I guess that doesn’t make him crooked, just smart. Government won’t tell him what to do!Of course this does not mean that government protection is always (or even often) worth the coercion. Laws can be bad, taxes can be misused, politicians can be corrupt and the mob can be led astray. But the risk of intrusive government needs to be balanced with the reward of protection precisely because they go together. Promising the latter without the former is nothing but blatant propagandist deception.
Do people really want to be free?
Thank you for the request!This is an interesting question.The relationship between people and freedom is very complex. Especially due to the relationship between security and liberty.If we are free, then we may be unsafe, but if someone keeps us safe then they tend to take away our freedom.Historically, this has been the struggle between man and man, and man and God. This has been the struggle between the common and the powerful, the ruler and the ruled.Neesha Rumi's answer to Why do people like to be free?In this answer, I explored the human desire for safety.Yet, this safety comes at a price. Authority comes with a price. The loss of freedom.Yet, groups of people, who have no authorities over they're heads are rare at best.However, history is also full of revolutions and revolutions are fuelled by the dream for freedom.What I believe is that people actually want a balance between liberty and security. We want to be controlled just enough and free to a large extent.The extreme state of either is undesirable.So, what people really want is balance.