What is the purpose of government?

Allowing people the freedom to rise as far as they can?

Or giving people the safety of not having to far to fall if they fail?

The two are not mutually exclusive and the task of our leaders is to find the right balance of the two.  If the safety net is to high it discourages enterprise but without a safety net society is a very harsh place.

Wow very philosophical.

Some facts:

• In 1901 the federal government had a budget of $13.5 billion, in todays dollars, by 2005 population had quadrupled and the budget had grown to $2.7 trillion, a 200 times increase.
• In the last 100 years the combined spending of all levels of government has grown from 8% of the total economy to 31%.

Some Perspective:

• The USA is among the lower of the developed nations in the percent of its GNP that is spent by public sector.