Think About IT: Weak Families Are the Fuel of a Burgeoning Government

Why does it seem so often that the federal government really works against the family with such things as taxes that are higher on married couples than if they were single, tax-funded education that undermines stable families, and divorce made easier than setting up a new television? Although I do not think this is conspiratorial, the truth is that a strong family, with a mom and dad that love each other and their family, actually undermines the argument for making government bigger.

If a family feeds and medicates their members, educates their children academically, morally, and spiritually, and provides care in illness and the latter years of life, government’s argument for bigger government, beyond its legitimate role of providing physical protection for its citizens, rings hollow.

The demand for more taxes is directly related to the breakdown of the family. Today, government is/has to a large degree taken on the role of God and family–wanting to provide insurance, Social Security, Medicare, public education, redistribution of wealth, teaching morals contrary to a strong heterosexual monogamous marriage, bailing out people that have gotten loans beyond their capacity to pay, ad infinitum–and thereby make their claim to a right to more taxes, which necessarily results in less personal and familial responsibility as well as liberty to excel or fail if a person so desires.

Will the people rise up and demand that this elephantine monster be rationed? Probably not since personal responsibility has largely been displaced by rights, dependence on the state, and victimhood. Will the federal government self-discipline itself? As regrettable as it is, probably not without some kind of divine intervention because once someone takes on the role of God, they seldom give it up without a fight.

Peter Hitchens, speaking of strong families and less government, noted, “It would also leave people free to cling to individual ideas of conscience, rather than the nationalized ‘social’ conscience which measures a citizens’ value by how much tax he is willing to pay. The freer society is, the more it leaves the family alone.” ((The Abolition of Britain p192-193))