Oddbean

There are a handful of tasks for which the government is useful, but given the choice between what we have now and zero federal government, I'll chose zero federal government every time. Unfortunately those in power will always increase their power and never decrease it, so the only way to make a decrease is to abolish it completely.

I don't think the USPS is worth saving. I think private companies could do better. UPS and FedEx already do, with packages. NIST is helpful. NOAA does some good things, but I'm guessing more than half of what they do should be eliminated. For me it isn't agencies that should exist. There are a small number of actions that are useful, although almost all of them are difficult to impossible to keep in their useful, but not harmful limitations. I'd argue that the only purpose of government is to protect life and private property, so the only valid actions are towards those goals. Protecting life would include things like punishing murderers, protecting borders against invasion and maybe a few other things. Protecting property would also include protecting borders against invasion, but would also be punishing thieves, protecting patents/copyrights/etc., enforcing contracts( entered into without force). There is probably a few more minor things. 99% of what the government does is not only not these things, I'd argue that the majority of the government's actions are actually the opposite of these things making the government worse than the things we created them to protect us from. I think nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7qgwwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkctcpremhxue69uhkummnw3ez6ur4vgh8wetvd3hhyer9wghxuet59uq3qamnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wd4hk6tcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzvuhsz9thwden5te0dehhxarj9ehhsarj9ejx2a30qywhwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnzd96xxmmfdejhytnnda3kjctv9uqzqp5fmavy02xnxa5f9k3fvgkhcr7urmcetr6tc3r3myykd2s7e20jx9mhx9 is probably correct that we can never keep the government within these limitations. If we could, I would be happy with this kind of government.

NIST is defacto in the constitution, as the body that sets standard weights and measures, which are necessary for efficienct commerce. The USPS can exist, but should be privatized and all monopolies revoked.