What a President Believes About Purpose of Government

¶ … inaugural speech in 1981, his first term of being President of the United States, Ronald Reagan famously stated with bold irony, "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." While mismanaged government agencies and bloated bureaucracies are problematic, government itself is not a "problem," and should not be perceived as such by one who has been elected to its highest office.

Dismantling government institutions that provide for the common defense and welfare of the people would defeat the real objectives of government, which is not to protect the wealthy from taxation but to promote happiness, freedom, and safety and maintain law and order. Reagan did go on to clarify what he meant in his statement, and noted, "it is not my intention to do away with government.

It is, rather, to make it work-work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back." On this count, Reagan is correct. Government should serve the people and avoid being an impermeable, tyrannical monolith. Yet good government requires good institutions that pool resources and channel those resources to meet common goals. Identifying shared goals can be difficult, which is why some government issues are left to the states and smaller geographic entities.

At the federal level, institutions protect human rights, welfare, and safety through agencies like the judiciary, legislation, and military capacity. Furthermore, the creation and effective maintenance of governmental organizations and institutions at the federal and centralized level is what does ultimately protect the rights and freedoms of citizens. Were it not for government-mandated education, for example, there might still be child labor.

Until Obama's health care reform, millions of Americans remained uninsured and unable to afford preventative care because of the anti-government stance assumed by Reagan and those who think like him. Universal health care can be considered necessary for the preservation of human life and happiness, which is why universal health care is considered an ethical obligation of a government. All government organizations and functions ideally promote the ideals embedded in the Declaration of Independence, which include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The purpose of a government, according to Reagan, should be limited to very basic skeleton functions. If this were true, then the private sector would assume many of the functions, roles, and responsibilities of the public sector. Reagan's love affair with privatization is dangerous and infringes directly on the rights and freedoms of Americans. Private organizations can operate outside the law and in accordance with values and goals that suit the needs of their senior management. Those needs are profit-driven. The needs of government organizations are goal-driven, not profit-driven.

Government organizations are required to follow laws of transparency, too, whereas private organizations can operate under far less scrutiny. Whereas Reagan accuses government of being "elitist" in his inaugural speech, it is truly the capitalist private sector that is elitist because it is formed by a cadre of people who control access to wealth and power. My personal views on the purpose of government fall more in line of those of Thomas Jefferson, who assumed a balance stance on government. Like Reagan, Jefferson also feared big centralized governments.

Yet he also recognized the worth of a government committed first and foremost to human liberty and happiness. In March of 1809, Thomas Jefferson stated, "the care of human life and happiness,.