Who really governs?
Both Max Weber and Joseph Schumpeter wrote that all governments, regardless of type, eventually evolve into bureaucracies; elected or self-appointed leaders would come and go, but the bureaus they create to implement policies would remain and govern forever.
There is little doubt that J. Edgar Hoover's FBI—forty-eight years and eight presidents—was more powerful than the White House. There are intelligent people who would argue that wars are not always the decisions of individual leaders, but rather are created by the military-industrial establishment that Thomas Edison and General Dwight Eisenhower warned would happen.
Is welfare noble—or perpetuating?
- Food stamps: If you feed a million hungry people today, should you anticipate needing to feed the next generation as well? The question Don poses is whether an intervention solves hunger or perpetuates a system that cannot be sustained.
- Unemployment agency: Instead of inefficient government agencies paying lines of unemployed people, Don recommends that for every fifty employees a company has, it must pay its average salary to an unemployed person. That person would reside at the workplace, and the company would be encouraged to train and inspire that individual to contribute.
- Economic Promotion Zones: Once companies reach a certain size, they would be obligated to create zones and work with local agencies, police, businesses and especially schools to promote growth and modernize the locality. Give people hope, a plan and a way to organize around building their own neighborhoods, then watch miracles happen.
The machinery of government
- Assassination unlawful: Executive Order 12333 decrees that it is against the law for a United States government official to order a foreign leader's assassination. It was later clarified so that targeted killings are exempt.
- Freedom of Information Act: The act was signed into law in 1966 to make government activities transparent to the public. Redaction policies, however, allow officials to blot out anything deemed important to national security.
- Government debt: Politicians will continue to devalue the dollar to delay the day of reckoning. Inflation lessens the actual cost of government borrowing and forces banks to charge the public higher interest rates.
- Privacy: If privacy is a right, why does the government allow telephone and computer companies to spy on everyone?