What should the government do for us?

Often, some people make remarks like “Don’t expect the goverment to just hand you things!” in response to concerns about healthcare, food, housing, what have you. This, I think, fundamentally misses the point of what a government, or at least a democratic government, *should be*.

(Note: I understand there is a massive difference between “should be” and “is”.)

See, like, if you’re just in a small group of people, you probably get along just fine talking things out with each other and making compromises. This is how things work in my family of all adults, for example. Most friend groups are this way too.

This kind of breaks down when you have a much larger group. Maybe, *maybe* you could gather everyone in a small town together and have them hash out budgets and laws, but a big city? An entire nation?

This is the whole reason we elect representatives. They’re not meant to be our rulers, but rather, our servants. (Again, I know that “meant to be” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. This is how I feel things should be, rather than how they are.) And you know mutual aid? That’s basically what taxes should be. You pay in, the money gets distributed to things everyone needs like roads and healthcare and the like.

I’m aware this is a rather optimistic view. I know it’s not how things *actually* end up working. And I’m not actually convinced that governments are a necessity; consider this a bit of apologia if you must. All this post is meant to be is an explanation of why some people seem to “want the government to give them everything”.

They don’t. They just want the government to do what it should have been doing all along: Serving the people, not ruling us.

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society