You often here the question is the government doing well or poorly? But how do we evaluate this if no one ever defines the goal of government? the former is an impossible question to answer without an answer to the latter.
Before we can figure out what policies governments should employ we need to define their goal.
i take a utilitarian view. The goal of government is to maximise the average happiness of its citizens. For this reason I believe strongly in :
now there are many other potential goals of government. You could take the Rawlsian approach and believe the goal of government is to maximise the utility of the worst off person, you could take the libertarian approach and believe the goal of government is to maximise freedom, you could be religious and believe the goal of government is to enforce some Gods moral laws on its population, you could be like Hitler and believe the goal of government is to enable one race or subset of people to prosper above all others, or you could believe the goal of government is create equality of outcome?
what do you personally believe is the goal of government and what are policy implications that result from that belief?
Before we can figure out what policies governments should employ we need to define their goal.
i take a utilitarian view. The goal of government is to maximise the average happiness of its citizens. For this reason I believe strongly in :
- human rights,
- some level of welfare redistribution away from those who are more successful to those that are less successful (because the marginal utility of wealth declines over time),
- employing policies to create a world of equal opportunity (banning private schooling, free uni education, financial support for children in low income families)
- free markets/private capital ownership (with constraints) to provide hope, fairness and sources of creativity and wealth creation,
- a society that openly encourages criticism (so that we can constantly remind ourselves why things are the way they are and find new avenues for improvement)
- significant government funding for R and D (to make society wealthier and improve standards of living).
now there are many other potential goals of government. You could take the Rawlsian approach and believe the goal of government is to maximise the utility of the worst off person, you could take the libertarian approach and believe the goal of government is to maximise freedom, you could be religious and believe the goal of government is to enforce some Gods moral laws on its population, you could be like Hitler and believe the goal of government is to enable one race or subset of people to prosper above all others, or you could believe the goal of government is create equality of outcome?
what do you personally believe is the goal of government and what are policy implications that result from that belief?