U.S. Government shuts down.

[Hammerskjold]

If instead, we allow people to choose how to spend their own money, then only the necessary things get purchased.

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Oh wait are you serious? There's more?

And... I know this is a vast oversimplification, and as we've discussed numerous times, there are some things that the government is best to do. But, I feel there are many ways in which we can trim out the stuff is less important, or would be better served by the private sector, or more locally. It's not an all or nothing proposition. This is the difficulty in having a healthy diet, or system of taxation. Once you get a little sugar, you want more. Only self-discipline, vigilance and frequent self assessment (on a fair scale) prevents one from getting obese.

Uh huh... Sounds less and less like libertarianism, and more like puritanism. Or maybe whatever this guy is advocating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RblbZQth0KE

edited addition:

Even if you mean that if you allow people to spend what they want, and reduce giving monies to big bad gov't, automagically gov't will then be forced to be more efficient. This is wishful thinking at best. I grew up in a country where there was very little taxes to pay officially, and the scenario that gov't became smaller and efficient and a libertarian's wet dream, is pure bunkum.

I agree with you on the notion that government can use more efficiency. Yes there is bloat. But the other extreme swing carries real consequences as well. Cutting off, severe reduction, privatizing certain roles like oh I dunno, food safety inspection, clean water standards, power generation etc... can and will lead to illness\death. Not hyperbolic metaphor, real death.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2012/...oment.html

Jeesus the tricorn hat doesn't seem to be that different from the che beret sometimes.