<...What do we expect from government? It seems to me that we demand a lot, from proactive defense and safe products for consumers to a regulated stock market and central banking. To finance that takes taxes, and taxation takes laws.

A good point. One should remember that, all else being equal, we tend to get the kind of government we ask for. If we get cradle-to-grave care, it's not just th politicians that are at fault. Of course, they certainly aren't going to encourage independence, either.

And, my mantra: When the law can be used to plunder, the plunderers will make the laws.

You said a mouthful. The plunderers include the politicians, and a good number of their constituents ranging from the professional welfare mothers all the way up to the head of Archer Daniels Midland. My libertarian solution to this is to remove the government's ability to interfere in the economy. I'm sure others have their own solutions.

Now, my view is that conservative plunderers systematically attempt to plunder from the entire system and funnel that money as directly as possible to those who finance them - the wealthy.



Liberal plunderers attempt to see that it's a government "of the people, for the people, and by the people" and use that money to benefit all people, not just the wealthy.



Another way to put it is "Liberal plunderers funnel that money as directly as possible to those who vote for them--the government dependents." The liberals are no more noble than the conservatives here. Both want primarily to stay in power. And by the way, more than a few Democrats are sucking off the corporate teat too.

There's one other small flaw with this statement...the government actually has no money. Everything it passes out comes from taxpayers, and most of the taxes come from the wealthy. So some of this is the wealthy grabbing their own money back. Of course, the ones who pay the taxes may not be the ones who get most of the goodies. This is why tax cuts--which let someone keep their own money--are a good idea, and corporate subsidies, which get the most money to the squeakiest wheels--whether it was ever theirs in the first place or not--are not a good idea.

Don't apologize for actually having a life. I'm between contracts right now, but look to get pretty busy later this month.