The Role of Government

What is the role of government?  What is the governments primary purpose? What was it organized for? These questions are a very important ones. Our leaders have very competing views of what the governments role is in our lives should be. This question is also the root of the majority of political arguments you may read about in the opinion section of the paper, or on the comment chains that correspond with a number of online blogs and news posts. So what is the role of government? At what point do the elected officials over step there authority? 

"If a nation were founded on this basis, it seems to me that order would prevail among the people, in thought as well as in deed. it seems to me that such a nation would have the most simple, easy to accept, economical, limited, non-oppressive, just, and enduring government imaginable-whatever its political form might be." Bastiat- The Law

The "basis" that Frederic Bastiat talks about in his book  The Law, is the more common view of what government should be. Government should be a government of law, were all are equal before the law, not made equal by it. The government should moderately regulate trade not create or distribute wealth or try and directly control commerce. The governments laws should be applied equally to all, not differently for different people. There are other factors a just government should have but theses are the ones that i feel are most applicable to the issues that are being debated in our government today.  Another way to think about these points is in the game of Monopoly.

In the board game of Monopoly from Hasbro, Hasbro makes the rules, then we play by them. It doesn't matter what piece you play with or with who you play with, the rules are always the same. This should be the same of the government. They create the rules they don't play the game.