It means "not getting enormously bigger and more powerful every day" just as a bare beginning. I've said many times (apparently talking to a wall) that I'm not looking for your strawman "libertarian paradise." I'm just looking to slow down, and hopefully even reverse to some extent, the headlong rush toward complete statism in this country.

It's unnerving to me that with many people I can find no upper limit to the level of government control of our lives and property that they believe is appropriate. When I told someone I was doing "research," I wasn't kidding. How hard does the hammer have to hit before the leg finally kicks?

You want an example of someplace with "less government?" Try the United States, in the early 1960s. It was the height of the Cold War. Defense spending absorbed twice the percentage of GDP it does now, and had almost twice the number of people. The interstate highway system was under construction. We had national parks, fire departments, libraries, roads, airports, sewage systems, power plants, policemen, and a growing space program.

The Federal Budget, in constant dollars adjusted for inflation, was about a fifth of what it is now.