re limiting govt was re employment was re why not concentrate in article apr rigel tamu edu gmw rigel tamu edu mr grinch writes in article apr isc br isc br com steveh thor isc br com steve hendricks writes this is a strawman argument and fails on several grounds in this case limited and big government are not defined i would point out that lebanon somalia and the former yugoslavia are by some definitions nations with limited government while the us canada and nations in western europe where people would rather live are often pointed out as nations with big government from a libertarian point of view well let me help by explaining the difference between a linited government and a failed government a limited government has its powers clearly circumscribed but is fully capable of enforcing its decisions within those circumscribed areas a failed government is incapable of enforcing its decisions except sporadicly two completely different beasts of course one again faces the question of how one circumscribes government power and keeps it circumscribed in a complex society when it is in the interest of neither capitalists nor consumers to refrain from using government power for their own ends but apart from that little conundrum it would seem that a society with a failed government would be an ideal setting for libertarian ideals to be implemented now why do you suppose that never seems to occur the argument is not between those who want limited government and those who want unlimited government it is between those who believe government regulation in a capitalist economy serves worthwhile ends and those who believe such regulation is neither desirable on empirical grounds nor justifiable on ideological grounds regulation is such a vauge word i wouldn t call it vague i d call it elastic all regulation is not necessarily the same by opposing all government regulation some libertarians treat every system from a command economy to those that regulate relatively free markets as identical that s one reason many of the rest of us find their analysis to be simplistic jsh mr grinch steve hendricks domain steveh thor isc br com one thing about data it sure does cut uucp uunet isc br thor steveh the bulls t r hofferbert ma bell
