Prolific government and the welfare state in particluar is driving out the community values that bind our society. It may not have reached the tipping point however unless there is trend reversal it will within one or two generations. An excess of materialism that has arisen over the last 35 years has done so in tandem with the expansion in welfare.

"Community" is built on the giving of gifts and the extension of hospitalities and civility. Or in my neighbourhood the lending of hammers and shovels. Community is where we feel a sence of connection and reciprocacy with those around us. Community is a place were charity is a messy personal matter that is handled locally not a systematic mechanistic one that is managed centrally and remotely.

"Economy" is built on the trading of things. Where two parties come together voluntarily to exchange goods or services.

"Government" is founded on the threat of force and the imposition of rules. And the welfare state is based on theft, the forced removal of one persons property for the material benefit of another. A process that undermines the spiritual well being of everybody involved and erodes from both sides any sence of connection or reciprocacy. A process that is far more materialistic in its motivation than capitalisms aspiration to commercial freedom.

So long as government is seen as "the solution" to the decline in community we are on a slippery slope to hell. Community is an intangible form of social capital. It might take more than a generation for meddling governments to undermine peoples spirit of community however it will happen. Removing meddling government will not cause our culture to instantly revert. However the removal of meddling government is a prior necessity. We will not start to rebuild community until this thorn is removed.

The institution we call government is founded on force and the threat of violence. It is the antithesis of community. Any notion that social capital can be built through violence and coersion is seriously flawed.

Reduce dependancy on Social security,more self reliance,smaller less interfering Govt,more people working in private enterprise,reward hard work,and happiness will follow.

When the do-gooders prevail,productivity fails and the master's of wealth creation become slaves to the servants in our Govt.

A number of people have put in posts expressing general opposition to tax/government etc.

Whilst I have a level of support for the views expressed I am wondering what alternatives you would suggest. I tend to see both as a necessary evil and if there are viable alternatives I would love to hear about them. In the mean time I continue to take an approach of trying to reduce the impact of both on peoples lives.

I do support aspects of Government spending being funded by optional additional taxes paid by people who nominate to do so. Plenty of scope then for those activities to move into the private sphere if better served there or die a quiet death if nobody wants them enough to pay for them.

As an example I support (to some extent) the choice to invade Iraq yet I wonder if I would support it enough to pay additional tax to fund our countries involvement. I wonder how different the welfare system would be if funding came from people saying I will pay additional tax to support this.

Any better offers in terms of doing away with taxation and government or do you also recognise that we do need them but object to your freedom's being limited as a result?

R0bert

Robert ,it is not about alternatives but the degree of taxation and Govt and interference.Both Govt and the PS have to be more accountable to the public.There is just too much waste and regulation.

There is way too much government and taxation. Maybe if the real world trend was towards smaller and leaner government then we might have a meaningful discussion about how far this trend should be allowed to go. However the current real world trend in Australia is towards larger and fatter government. So why worry too much about limits that are:-

a) A long, long, long, long way off.
b) In the opposite direction to what we have been heading over the last 100 years.

Even if we reduced the size of government to the size it was at before WWII we know from history that society will not collapse into anarchy. Maybe when we reach that point we can review our progress and see if we wish to proceed onward to the size of government we had pre WWI

Well terje, if enough voices in private enterprise were raised in unision, Govt would have to listen.Private enterprise is too fragmented and too busy being productive.If all of private enterprise stopped work for a day in protest to all this Govt nonsense,ie taxes regulation and growth of bloated Govt bureauracies could be reversed.It just needs enough people with the will and the courage.No one has ever really tried .