Is Government Too Big?

Two perspectives. One from The World of Psychology and the other from an Evangelical Catholic.

From the first link:

“Cigarettes are bad, they’re harmful to people, there’s a need for us to change the social norms around cigarettes,” said commission member Harold Cox, an associate dean at the Boston University School of Public Health. “Our responsibility as governmental officials is to protect people.”

That last sentence pretty much summarizes the pathology of some bureaucrats.

Government is generally good, when kept to common-sensical regulations and sound public policy. But when government takes a good cause, and then pushes that cause into every nook and cranny of everyday society, it has the potential of simply going too far for no logical reason. So while Massachusetts recently decriminalized marijuana possession, it will make criminals of these eleven small businesses for no particular public health justification."

I would love to do a study examining regulations and the empirical evidence used, if any, to support them.

But I'm busy at the moment.