Just a word for you "small government" types. The existence of the nation state is what allows the creation of wealth. The Nation state, by definition, requires Government. The resources available to the Government have to match the task of Governing. Large multinational corporations require large and complex regulators. To put that another way; if you want "small government" that you can "drown in the bathtub" go live in New Zealand.
I agree somewhat. The size of the U.S. somewhat necessitates larger government than many of our peers. Granted, this burden is intended to be somewhat alleviated by the separation of powers between the feds and local governments. Our system was designed to put most responsibilities in the hands of states and municipalities. While this doesn't work very well in some states, there are other states that seem to do a decent enough job. When the federal government is in charge of something, it does allow for more consistency throughout the country, but it also results in more bureaucracy. Of course, when you look at how large we are compared to most of our peers, this decentralization of power makes some sense. We have to govern things differently from how a country like Australia would, because we have a lot more people than Australia. I think a lot of people just desire smaller federal government here. They don't necessarily want less local government.
