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| TED
- Reduce The Role Of Goverment - by Roger Gallo |
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 Do
you want a libertarian society? Do you want to reduce the size of government
and put the power over peoples lives in the hands of the people themselves?
Another video on TED that I mentioned was a talk given by David Cameron,
a UK politician. Cameron discusses the public debt, [32 trillion and counting],
and asks, how do we make things better without spending more money. With
the current debt, there is not going to be enough money for services, and
Cameron contends that if one can only measure success in public services
by how much money is thrown at them that we are in for a fairly miserable
time. |
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Cameron
argues incipiently that political philosophy must be remade; giving people
more power and control over their own lives, and giving people more choice
by putting them in the driving seat, and not politicians. He suggests that
a stronger society will result. He further suggests, that if you marry
this factor with the incredible of abundance of information that we have
in the world today, that you can create a society that is less government
oriented.
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Cameron
discusses what he calls the three passages of history; the pre-bureaucratic
age, the bureaucratic age, and the post-bureaucratic age. We have gone
from a world of local control, he says, to a world of central control,
and now we are in a world of people control. Genuine 'people-control'
is possible due to the proliferation of information in the 21st century.
What makes this information unique, is that it is information which is
not controlled by bureaucracy, but is a form of information that allows
us to hold bureaucrats to account, and in some cases do without them. Information
allows us to control bureaucracy, and hold bureaucrates to account, so
that they no longer control us.
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| If the video does not load -
Click
Here |
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We
have already changed the way we shop, travel, communicate; we are now beginning
to hold government to account, requiring greater transparency, choice,
and accountability. Applying this to government spending would be
revolutionary.
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| "You just spent $19 million tax
payer dollars on a toilet
seat for a space shuttle?" |
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| There is now a number of websites
that lists all government spending in the USA. |
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Cameron
contends that transparency in government spending has the potential to
put people in control of their governments and not vice-versa. He wants
to put a transparency in government spending website online in the UK.
This will create 1] Accountabilty. Accountability will force government
departments to be responsible says Cameron; more efficient and relevant
in their area of responsibilty. Information that was once only available
to government agencies is now becoming available on the internet. It will
create 2] Understanding. Cameron doesn't need to tell us, but the
more we understand, the more our children understand, the better we are
able to deal with problems and reduce, or even eliminate government.
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I
won't go into a dicussion of how Cameron's ideas may apply to libertarianism,
or the work of Anthony
de Jasy. I believe that what Cameron has to say is worth listening
to, considering, and implementing. Libertarians spend most of their
time back-biting and arguing with one another over minuet. Here is
an idea, take the idea and apply it, change it, improve on it. Government
can be reduced and made accountable. Perhaps government can be eliminated.
These are issues that are worth discussing. What we have here is
an idea, and it should create other ideas and implementation.
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Can
good ideas raise the standards? Can ideas reduce or elimate government,
or make it more accountable? Can ideas give power back to people and hold
bureaucrats to account? Ideas can change the world. TED does have ideas
worth spreading, pass it on.
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