What do you think the main role of the government is? To keep peace in it’s boundaries? To fight off invaders? To provide favorable economic trading conditions? To provide military and economic security? Historically, people have banded together to protect themselves from outsiders and help each other through tough times. Governments of any type have to fulfill the expectations of the people. Even dictatorships provide military security to their people, which is above what anarchy can do. Many people have different ideas what the role of the government should be, which is also tied into how you view human nature.

            Human beings are social animals and we like to be around each other. People who live in civilization have characteristics that are distinct from those who are hermits. While we live together, we tend try to make things run efficiently to meet our goals out of our society. The institutions that are created help make things go smoothly and the biggest institution typically is a central government. The central government has the theoretical power to impose rules and laws on all members within that society. That’s theoretical power because the government still needs some support to fulfill its operations. If that government loses support including complacency from the masses, it would be replaced with a new one.

            Governments are representative of their society they are governing, even if they are not a democracy. Dictatorships are more likely to have uneducated and economically insecure populations. Democracies are more likely to have more highly educated and economically secure populations. Since the earliest of times, governments started as dictatorships then evolved into constitutional monarchies, then into republics, then into modern democratic republics. What brought about this evolution? More and more people became educated and scientific knowledge grew. The more educated you are the more likely you want a say in how things are done.

            But even the most educated person can only do so much if he is poor or the people around him are too poor to invest in him. Economic security is another important piece of human nature. If a person is desperate, they might do anything to improve their economic situation. Governments over time have increasingly looked into the economic wellbeing of their citizens. People are less likely to look towards crime if they are financially secure and more likely to participate productively in society. Businesses’ being able to work for profit seems to be the best system known to us. Competition and individual choice are twin pillars that make capitalism the greatest.

            Some people believe in no interference from the government into business affairs. Unfortunately this brings savage competition that leads to a few monopolies that has very limited individual choice. Ingenuity is crushed to a bare minimum. Societies with this kind of system have huge disparities between the richest and poorest people. As businesses don’t have any oversight, their greed supersedes the betterment of the Human. The environment is under the mercy of their greed. Media is another concern as it is used to see how the world works. If the media is owned by a few large companies, then the society is bombarded with pro-corporate message and a reinforced status quo message. When workers are treated humanely and given a living wage with opportunity to succeed then you have the potential for most productive workers in the world. Consumers are given a choice if there are many businesses competing to get their money. This competition would inspire creativity without destroying people lives.

            The role of government in our day should be set with moral values in mind. Universal morality is belief that there is a core Human moral value system. Just about all people believe killing is wrong. Just about all people believe stealing is wrong. The exceptions who don’t believe in those are just that, exceptions. They don’t make the world a better place to live in. People generally have sense of togetherness and that could be capitalized on to make the best form of government possible.

            Democracy with a humanized capitalist system is the best form of government. Individuals should be the focus of laws and regulations with the greater good in mind. It’s the moral thing to allow all people to get a quality education and to feel economically secure. Not only do people need to be safe from criminals and soldiers from another country, but they need to be safe from dying from lack of healthcare, food, warm clothes, shelter, and other general welfare elements. It’s the moral thing to help the weakest members of society.

            The higher level of education someone gets, the more likely they are to get a better job and more likely they get a job that is beneficial to society. A special effort should be made to get poorer people a good education, as it’s been a proven way to break the cycle of poverty. It’s the role of a moral government to make sure that gets done. A highly educated society can make better judgments on how our democracy is run. They can’t be as easily duped by immoral politicians or by religious dogma.

            It is the role of a moral government to make sure all people get healthcare. Businesses have proven the free market can’t help everybody and isn’t more efficient than government models. Also expecting businesses to provide health insurance is bad for small businesses because they are too small to invest in such things. Nobody should feel they need to make a choice of going to the doctor or having something to eat for the week. Worse still if it’s your kid that might need to go to the doctor but you might not have enough to feed your kid afterwards.

            If it is a good thing for every eligible person to work, then the government should make sure everyone has a means to get to work. It is not good family values to leave your kids home alone or with a potentially dangerous stranger while you go to work. Quality childcare should be provided as a means to keep kids happy and safe while the parents work or get an education. Mass transit should be kept working efficiently to provide a way to get to work, to school, or to participate in society at an affordable price. Also mass transit has another positive effect, less cars which means environmental protection.

            Our environment can only take so much from Human activity. If we were to destroy our environment, the Human race will be destroyed along with it. It is the role of a moral government to protect our environment from ourselves. Government can regulate how much pollution businesses can produce, forcing them find cleaner ways to produce their goods. Government can give incentives to find cleaner ways to produce goods. They can also spend money on research that finds cleaner ways to produce energy. People can be very innovative when they need to be. Having a clean environment will keep people healthy and have an effect on the healthcare system which would keep it cheap.

            Limit the amount of death and suffering in the world. Helping economic conditions for everyone would reduce the main causes of killing and promoting education can help with changing economic conditions for the individual and in turn, society. The government has an important role in stopping murder, torture, and mass killings. Genocide and war will be history if everyone had a quality education and quality security. The justice system has no place in placing revenge over the treatment of criminals. Even though punishment will always be an element of rehabilitation, the government can stop creating worse people in prison. Helping criminals to become productive citizens is the moral thing to do. Also the death penalty is a barbaric form of justice and two wrongs do not make a right. It is immoral to kill in the name justice when it is actually revenge.

            This ideal moral government would have to be paid for. The fairest way to get money is to implement a tax system that increases the tax on an individual if their disposable income increases. That is a way to tax the rich people more, who gained success in the society and it is a way for them to pay back to the society who helped them succeed. Of course their will be social engineering exemptions in this tax system. It will promote families, clean energies, and other beneficial things to society.

            To legitimize this government is to make it a democracy. To hold this government accountable, freedom of speech and freedom of the press would be there. As corporate monopolies will be discouraged and broken up if necessary, there should many media outlets allowing many viewpoints to speak their mind. With an educated society being able to see an open transparent government, they could make better judgments on politicians and who to vote in or vote out. With the freedom to assemble and to associate with whomever, people can form special interest groups to speak about what should be done with the government. Special interest groups should only have limited access to politicians and government workers to help eliminate the chance of corruption. No one should be peddling out government services or subsidies to their contributors or their benefactors.

            The role of the government should be an activist one, always looking out for the good of all people. People need to use the power of reason and use empathy to put this kind of government in power. Honesty is a common trait that is respected by people and we, as a people, need to force the politicians and the government as a whole to be honest. We need to use science to explain how things work and our human nature. With that information we can make the greatest government possible for all people. Remember, the government is us. People have power. We can change how government works and make it work for us.