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DavidF wrote >>
You actually missed my point by a wide margin. It seems to me many, if not most, of the anti government arguments have a surplus of perception, and massive lack of evidence. I would posit that no amount of contrary evidence will counteract that.
I'm not entirely sure as to what you're getting at, but lets try an example.
The internet.
Yep, no doubt it was started by DoD as ARPANET back in the day.
APRANET grows along with other networks ( MILNET which became NIPRNET , SIPRNET, CSNET, etc.) and becomes used in universities as well as government agencies.
(Note to geeks: yes, I'm glossing over a lot and simplifying. I'm tired and cranky. Deal.)
But for most people here, that doesn't matter. If things had stayed as they were, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
In 1992, Congress authorized commercial use of the Internet with all restrictions ending in 1995 when the National Science Foundation ended it's sponsorship of the internet backbone.
That made the internet what it is today.
Can you really picture a site like CU being developed from a government committee? How about ebay? Amazon? The online world of blogs, discussion boards... being able to talk with people on the other side of the planet as easily as one talks to a neighbor and making that easy to use for everyone?
It took commercial interests to bring that about, along with some very passionate geeks. OK, maybe "obsessive" is a better word. Still, without corporate interests ( IBM, Microsoft ) the infrastructure wouldn't be there for some of the great open source successes ( Linux, BSD, Apache... ).
I digress... yes, government has a role to play... but not the only role, and certainly not always the major role.
DavidF wrote >>
And I would hope that by now you would recognize that I'm not a fan of unlimited government power. I believe the scope debate is reasonable and that an argument for governmental intervention in one area is not the same as saying that unlimited concentration of power is a good thing.
So I guess I'm neither anarchist or fascist.
Thought exercise: How much government intervention is enough? Is there some point where it's too much?
Hell, I'll throw a few out... end the drug war. Not because I'm a stoner ( hell, been years since I had a drink, let alone anything else ) but because I firmly believe that it's your body: you wanna melt your brain? Go for it. Same with gay marriage... since when is it OK for the government, ANY government, to regulate what consenting adults do? Don't answer that... the answer is depressing, as is the result.
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