Ep.29 Unpacking the Role of Government

In this episode, we dive into the role of government and how it’s evolved from the founding principles to what we have today.  The Bill of Rights established baseline expectation for government and has been expanded on over time through wars and prosperity in this great country.  We also cover the great expansion of government in the early 1900s and what remnants exist from that today.

Are we on a collision course with pain?  How do we ensure our government’s role is appropriate to provide liberty & safety without destroying the founding principles… we cover it all, so tune in and drop comments with your thoughts & feedback.

https://youtu.be/O7CShMwxdSo

00:00 Intro & Founding Ideals
03:35 Federal vs State
05:03 Expansion of Gov
12:40 Small vs Big
15:30 Debt & Inflation
19:15 What To Do
23:25 Summary

Transcript

Matt: 0:00

Welcome to another episode of the programming lions podcast where we are on a mission to be more productive humans today We have an exciting topic, which is the role of Government so buckle up. We're gonna talk about What was intended when it was set up by our forefathers? What is the role of federal versus state government? How has it evolved and expanded over the years? What is the ideal or most productive system? And if we're not on that trend, what might we do to course correct a little bit? So we got a lot to unpack. Let's get right into it.

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Matt: 0:40

The role of government, boys. Yeah! Big topic. Are you ready? Yeah! Okay, let's unpack this a bit. I think the most prudent place to start would be, What did our forefathers intend when they set up the U. S. government and Constitution? Tell me more. So, I have a quote from the Constitution about what they want, like the preamble. But so, here it is. We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity. Now, yeah, that's very deep, but that's what they wanted when they were making it. What are some core themes in there that you'd say are maybe core tenets of what they felt at the time would be Roles of the government. It sounds like what I heard was protect people. Yeah, what I really heard is that the Basically about making sure that the people are safe Yes. Property and physical safety. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's the main thing I took away from it in providing for, you know, basically liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yes. Okay. Well, that's good. That really sets it up. Yeah. There were wise men back, back then that, that laid this out and they had fled over taxation and persecution. And so that's kind of what led to, you know. The United States being established, right? Yeah Okay, very good. What else? Another thing was that back then The founding fathers were mixed up. They some of them wanted a small government or the anti federalist Which was like thomas jefferson They preferred a more stronger state government not a strong central government Okay, and there's also the act there's also the federalist. Yeah, they that would like Alexander hamilton and Adams. Okay. They wanted a strong central government. Interesting. So, I think though eventually they came, they kind of came down to a, like an agreement and in the beginning the government was very small. Like they couldn't even get taxes, so they kind of did what Jefferson wanted. Yeah, just protect the people in general. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, and that makes sense That seems like pretty good way to look at what the government should do for us, right? Okay Now you talked a little bit about some of those founding fathers Wanted a more central government versus a more distributed government at the state levels But it brings up this other question about the role of federal government versus the role of states What are your thoughts and research about that? So state courts are established by the laws of each state and have broad jurisdiction. Jurisdiction? And what do you take that to mean? Well, so they are, so they're established by the laws, which are basically Yeah, basically the constitution, kind of. They have their own courts, not the Supreme Court. So the Constitution and Federal Government have a, let's say a small set of laws. One might say that the Bill of Rights is sort of the original set of those, right? Mhmm. And those would be sort of an umbrella law structure over the states that they couldn't override. But then, besides those, like the states, Can establish their own Jurisdiction policies procedures and laws and regulations, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah the actual roller of the Central government the federal government. They are supposed to like make money they Help distribute the mail. They also declare war and and they also impose taxes, which are another main thing. And They also manage foreign affairs, is that right? Yeah, they also, yeah they talk with other countries. Foreign policy and yeah. Okay. Because that would be kind of overpowered if the states could do that. Obviously yes. Okay, that makes sense. And, William, I think you did some research on how the role of government Had changed over the years and there was a big change in the early 1900s around World War one Yeah, where the role of the central or federal government Expanded considerably. You want to tell us a little bit about who was that and what happened? It was mainly between two people. It was President Wilson yeah, and then FDR both of them were presidents during the World Wars, right? Wilson did the Federal Reserve System. Okay. So, that one that, that's complicated. Yeah. I think it could be his whole podcast. Right, right. But, you basically, yeah. We could spend a whole podcast talking about the Federal Reserve, why that was established, who benefited. There's a lot of, well, fairly legitimate conspiracy theories about that. But ultimately, it was set up to manage the banking and monetary system, right? Yeah, so that was the main thing that Wilson did that was like the one thing that Wilson did but FDR He like expanded the government like crazy okay, he was the one that gave much more powers to the president and the Congress And just more powers to the government in general. He like, really made it big. Like twice or maybe triple the size of it. He did several acts which were supposed to control more of the people what they could do. One was a very famous one called the Social Security Act. Oh yes that's a main one. There's also the, there's also the like, Agricultural Adjustment Act. I don't know if that one's still here today, but that one paid farmers not to work. Right. Which was weird, because, Jefferson, he was probably like in his grave. He's rolling in his grave? Like, why? Why? He, because, he like he wanted he wanted farms. He wanted the, everywhere to be farms. Yeah. He FDR kind of changed that, so there's that. Let's see here. There's also the Civilian Conservation Corps. Okay. There's that, and there are a bunch of there are other ones related to that. Those were those things made it where they put Kids or people between like certain ages to work for no money kind of but then like it would be where They could volunteer and then they would help build bridges like boats. Yeah, I think most people would agree that the largest expansion of government happened under a combination of Woodrow Wilson and FDR. And they were largely expanding government through progressive policies which today we would know as more democratic party policies where the government provides for people through various different systems. So social security is a great example of. They take money out of your paycheck for your working career, and then you get it back when you get old. And that system is it's basically bankrupt today. And then Lyndon B. Johnson also came along and so the role of government through that era, And we also had World Wars, which, Put those people in some different That mainly did the debt. Yeah, definitely added to the debt. And you could say part of the depression and other things, so that definitely was an influencing factor around people wanting the government to step in and really help out during these times. And I think there's some debate about whether that really helped in the long run or not. But All of these entitlement programs that we know and hear about today, like Social Security, like Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, all of those programs were basically started under those administrations and leaders. Yeah. And we can debate maybe another time if those are good programs or not, but oftentimes I'd say we don't look at entitlement programs as necessarily the most productive things, but I can understand why they were set up. And then, additionally, what else happened in 1913 under Woodrow Wilson? I think we missed a couple of really important pieces. One, you mentioned, was we set up the Federal Reserve. What did the Federal Government start doing in 1913? They started doing federal income taxes. Yeah. And Oh, wow. When Wilson was president, so Yeah, February 3rd, 1913. Okay. February 3rd, 1913, federal income taxes were established for the first time. Yeah. And, so for those that don't know, we did not have federal income tax up until 1913. Yeah. Whoa. Another thing that I forgot to mention was during FDR, he started the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. That's right. That thing was where they, it gave banks if they get bankrupt, it would give them some money for they can pay out the people who had their money inside of it. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly right. That's a good point, Will. Yeah. You can't forget that one. The This is where people might hear of FDIC insurance. And so this is where the government guarantees People that they will get paid back up to, I think today it's 250, 000 of money that they have in the banks. If a bank fails or goes bankrupt because it uses a fractional system in terms of how it banks. I'll talk about that just for a minute. But if a bank takes too many risks and they fail, the federal government has basically backed up the banks and will pay people their money. And so it's another. example of let's just call it an entitlement or a backstop for businesses that the government wants to support because there's a lot of government a lot of Businesses that if they fail or go bankrupt and well they just go out of business, but that doesn't happen for banks So that's interesting, right? And yeah, that's weird and strange. And the banking system and federal reserve is probably a good topic for another show, but the banking system is set up on fractional reserves. So for example, if a hundred people put. 100 into a bank, and they all go to that bank and want to get their money out on the same day. The bank won't have it. The bank only has to hold, I think it's something like 17 cents on the dollar for every dollar that somebody has invested with them. It allows more money to be floating in the system, but having these sort of IOUs by the banks to people. There's reason that can be good. It gets, money out in the system. That's what they set up and that's how it works. But it can also be risky in times where people want to come and get their cash, there could be a situation where the banks don't have it. So you hear sometimes about having a run on the banks in difficult economic times, and people might have a run on the banks. And that's what that means. Imagine putting your money in a bank and then going to the bank and the bank not giving it to you. That's a commonplace activity today. So we for example, we have money in the bank and they'll have limits on how much you can take out on a daily basis of your own money. Yeah. Wait, that doesn't quite make sense. Today, you only can take out, like. 100. And then tomorrow you can take out another 100. Yeah, I mean the limits are different depending on the banks and your accounts. But, yeah, that's a real thing. Enough about the banking system. Let's talk for a moment about what do we think based on what we've discussed so far in terms of the original role of government, which was pretty small and it enabled people to have a lot of freedom and choice in terms of how and where they spent their dollars to today, which is a pretty heavy system, but there's a lot of, one might argue, benefits from larger government that they provide in terms of. In, in titlements, programs, access to things, roads, bridges that are federally funded and all of that, that, that ultimately come out of our taxes. There's programs and investment in different industry and business that comes out of the tax programs. So, the expansion of government is now pretty extensive, and there's a lot of people that want to expand it much more. And I'd say in modern history, probably Obama is known for expanding government. Obamacare, basically providing almost like a universal health care for people. What do you think based on what we've talked about? And we're not experts, but we've talked about this a little bit today and around the house over, over the years. What do you think is the ideal setup? What do you think makes the most sense? Well, the thing is government, if we didn't have a government and there was only like a president, would maybe be in chaos, because the government kind of, I know it keeps us together, cause it also passes a law, so then if Joe Biden, he might just like, pass these very dumb laws, and no one And it just goes out into the country. So, I feel like we might need government. Yeah. There are its ups and downs, but I think government is kind of needed to keep control. Yeah. Make sure nothing bad happens. Yeah. But getting too big of a government, then it's then, that's, then it's government that's, that, that got bad things happen. Well, I agree we need government because, As we talked earlier at a minimum we need the protection of personal liberties rights Property and protection from violence. Yeah, right and so you do that through Police, a fair and just judicial system, and basic set of, laws, rules, and regulations over property ownership and things like that. That would be the baseline that a government, should have, right? Yeah. And largely that's outlined in the Bill of Rights. Yeah, yep, a lot of it is. Yeah, but the Bill of Rights doesn't say you are entitled to retirement funds healthcare unemployment, and those types of things. Those have been expanded upon over the years, right? Yeah. Yes. The other maybe byproduct of the larger government is we're in an incredible amount of debt. 35 trillion in debt. And that debt is getting to a point where we can barely pay the interest on it. When you take on a lot of debt is you influence inflation, right? Government spending and monetary supply directly impacts inflation. The value of the dollar is getting lower and lower every single year. Ultimately inflation is a byproduct of big government. Yeah. So, those things, just noted. But there are some benefits you know, when you have big government, one might argue, well, we can take care of people. We can take care of people that aren't able to take care of themselves. On the other side of that you might say well let's help people Figure out how to take care of themselves rather than just taking care of them. That's sort of the argument both ways but Knowing all of that what are your thoughts in terms of the role of government? So, I think that maybe, I think we need it because if there's no government, there's no control. If there's no, if there's no control, the world goes up in flames. Yeah. So, I think we do need government, just there needs to be, like, restrictions on it. Yes. So, things like the Federal Reserve System or Social Security Act and stuff like that. Those things just Should not be allowed. That'd be like crossing the line. Or any weird days. Yeah. Any weird days, like what, Max? Trans day. Trans visibility day on Easter, Max? You didn't like that? No! Why not? What's wrong with trans visibility day everything. It is interesting that it was, it came from the White House. They declared it trans visibility day. I Think max the issue is there's not enough days to celebrate the LGBTQ I a plus ampersand sign hashtag How many are there in there? Yeah, there's I don't know, 365? No. I actually read an article about this. It added up all of the days around the acronym community. And do you have an idea how many days of the year are dedicated to that? 123. I feel like a hundred thirty one. Ooh, close Max. A hundred and forty five. What? A hundred forty five? Well, including June. That's almost half of them. You just can't celebrate enough pride, boys. We get, we're getting off on a little bit of a tangent here with. Maybe that's almost half of the year. It is like a month off from being half of the year. It's incredible. It's unbelievable. It's hard to, it's hard to, it's hard to imagine. It's let's move on. Yeah, let's get back on track. Let's get back on track. So we've basically. Come to the conclusion that a smaller government might be more productive for individual freedom and one's ability to use their own earnings and money out of this capital system to do what they want versus having it go to the government, which spends it in the way that they want for the greater good. Let's just say for the greater good with good intentions, but ultimately a lot of these good intention programs. have problems. Social Security is a great example that is basically bankrupt. And most of these programs are or go in that route. Like we talked about the mail system recently, which is a government run mail system, and they lose money, billions every year that is then subsidized by the taxpayers. Do you think there are Any actions that we can take as citizens, taxpayers, to move this back in a direction of smaller government, because it's absolutely, positively moving in the direction of bigger government, right? Yeah. All the way since Woodrow Wilson, FDR, LBJ, and then maybe a gap, and then Obama, And certainly, Biden wants to do that. He wants to forgive student debt and other programs that I think we would consider fairly unproductive. But, what can we do? What can we do? Well, to make it a smaller government, I'm just like basically what Will said, put restrictions on it. Yeah, just, yeah, put restrictions on it. But Max, congress and the senate, all these politicians, they have personal benefits by expanding government because it makes their job more important and when their job is more important, then they get things out of that whether it's notoriety or money or speaking engagements It's personally and professionally beneficial for them to have bigger government, and so it's a it's an interesting Position that we're in because a lot of our politicians You know they go and they spend their career in Washington, and they just keep the cycle going right It would be kind of hard to lower something. That's already so big. Yeah, like that'll be tough Torture to take down and you need like everyone all of the Congress all of the Senate everyone in the White House You need everyone to vote for it. Like you need everyone to support it. Yeah so there be that maybe a good maybe a very good way to do it is to vote for me when I run for president No, I'm kidding. It's a tricky one how to get ourselves out of this There's this term called kicking the can down the road. You know what that means? Yeah It means not addressing the problem right now, just kicking it down the road and addressing it later. So we're procrastinating on addressing pain. Pain is coming. Pain is 100 percent coming. It's on the way. It's almost here. And it's a matter of how long we delay it. And inflation helps delay it because then it makes paying off the debt with today's tax dollars cheaper because we're paying off Previous dollars with dollars that are, you know, inflated in their valuation. So, the government will want inflation, so there's interesting things that they can do to prolong it and stand it up. And another would be increasing taxes. We can take more money from taxpayers income and earnings and distribute that into the government systems that have been set up all of those things, they will probably do as long as they can. I don't know that anybody's really gonna come forward and convince folks that we've gotta take the hit. We've gotta do things like break down these big systems, whether it be the FBI, the U. S. mail system, the Federal Reserve political term limits. It's politically advantageous for them to be in these positions of control and power. The structure and setup obviously worked for a long time. Yes. And I'd say capitalism has been the only, it's not a perfect system, but it's the only system that's been proven to produce some of the most exquisite outcomes in, known, documented history So it's tricky is a tricky one. One thing that we can do the things that we can do that are realistic is vote in people that are willing to make hard decisions vote in people that are Asking hard questions that are willing to do What it takes that really care about government that aren't just Getting on TV and saying, we'll give you more. We'll take care of you. That is actually going to push us in the wrong direction. And it's going to be difficult, but we've got to go through some pain to come out on the other end. Otherwise the pain is just going to be deeper and longer coming this way. I would just encourage you guys to think about when you vote, who we put into office, and when laws are on the ballot, what laws do we really need versus what are people just trying to put in place to, make money or have control or power over some thing, because people can largely govern themselves. And what the founding Fathers really wanted was a system that just protects us from physical harm protects our property rights and our basic rights of liberty if we think about that, there's a lot of laws that go on the books that are not that

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