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September 20, 2004
Can We Ever Really Get Government Out of Way of Entrepreneurial Development?
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain."
These prophetic words of Thomas Jefferson were quoted by Jordan Ballor in his commentary "Addition by Subtraction: Placing Limits on Government" posted at the Acton Institute's web site. He reinforces his point using this graph from John Stossel's book, Give Me a Break, as illustration of government's recent exponential growth.
Why does this matter to entrepreneurs and those interested in supporting their efforts? Because getting government out of the way of the entrepreneurial process, through such efforts as streamlining regulations and simplifying taxes, have proven to be very powerful tools to spur entrepreneurial economic growth.
As entrepreneurship is beginning to get on the radar screen of politicians, I fear that it may become a new playground for legislative mischief. Creating new programs, no matter how well intentioned or seemingly logical they may be, will not help entrepreneurs. Spend this time and effort cleaning up all of the unnecessary legislation that just gets in the way.
This, too, will take political action. As Ballor concludes in his commentary:
"We should all understand that getting rid of bad or superfluous laws is just as central to the role of legislator as making new ones. And for this to occur, voters will need to pressure lawmakers. As Lord Acton reminded us: 'Everybody likes to get as much power as circumstances allow, and nobody will vote for a self-denying ordinance.'"
For as another great statesman, Ronald Reagan liked to remind us, "Government is not the solution, it's the problem."
Posted September 20, 2004 06:17 AM
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Comments
While I agree with your post, the chart doesn't really support the post.
Perhaps if the annual percentage of growth in government each year was posted, we'd have a better view of whether the growth is so large.
Posted by: Dingo at September 21, 2004 02:05 AM
Note that the chart is in 2003 dollars, not current dollars. This is not an inflation effect.
Posted by: Jeff at September 21, 2004 06:24 AM
I am also uncomfortable with the chart. One would expect government spending to increase along with the country's population. I would like to see a line added that represents population growth. While I would still expect to see that per capita spending has increased drastically, the argument would be more compelling.
Posted by: mdeane at September 21, 2004 05:15 PM
at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. He consults with a variety of businesses on start-up and growth related issues, and with larger corporations on re-establishing entrepreneurial cultures within their organizations. Dr. Cornwall's current research interests include entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial ethics. He has authored or co-authored four books.
