What's it supposed to do?

I certainly don't want to get into the whole nation-state discussion, so let me say at the onset that we're talking primarily about what we call countries. Big or small, densely populated or not, we have these things called countries and somehow they have to be managed, but managed how, to do what?

A good friend recommended an opinion piece that talks about the fundamental ideas that I'm addressing, but takes a different, let us say, political tack. It is more than worth the read, for it helps put the discussion in a sound historical perspective, but I would like to direct our attention beyond the political to the personal. In other words, I'm trying to get you to think about what you think.

Maybe they don't need to be managed, maybe they're self-organizing, but I doubt they are. They must have some reason to exist, and when we know what that reason is, we can go about trying to figure out how to make them run most efficiently. No, the question is, why do we have them at all? Or, what do we think government should be doing"?

It's the answer to that question that we, as a society, probably disagree on most. We like to think that we know and agree, but the fact remains that we don't agree and we don't discuss it ... in fact, I don't think that many of you have given it much thought. Governments are so self-evident, we don't think much of them at all. They are bothersome, always telling us what to do, they want things from us, and whatever it is, it's always wrong, but that doesn't answer the question, it just expresses our personal attitudes.

Here is where our financial fans have to leave the discussion. The purpose of government cannot be expressed in terms of money; it is expressed in terms of ideals or values. These aren't things we can buy and sell, and they are certainly not anything the market can handle. As I've said before, there are some areas of life that can't be treated as, nor should they be treated as, markets. If you look at the Constitution, for example, all you find are principles of organizations. Whatever ideals or values may be there are implied. The bill of rights gets a little closer, there are some statements but mostly only hints in the Declaration of Independence, so what we are left with is what we might call general consensus. And if there has ever been a slippery notion, this one – consensus – certainly qualifies.

Whatever these ideals and values turn out to be, I would suspect that we all agree that regardless of what we may think government is, we think a good part of its job is seeing to it that those ideals and values should put into practice in some recognizable way. Oh, it is actually all so very simple.