"The role of government is to foster the pursuit of wealth and protect the wealth that has been created. Government creates neither wealth nor jobs."
Hocus pocus, csl. These are just your dogmas.
The government has many roles. Protecting wealth is not one of them - wealth and property rights are different things. One of the roles it plays is to define and secure the limits of property rights and to ensure the proper functioning of markets. Another is to set rules (law and order). Another is the health of society (inequality, contagions). Another is the issuance of money (the wonderful Fed). Another is defence.
In sum, the role of government in the US is to do the bidding of the American people, who have all sorts of interests. So in general, government's role is to provide a balance between these competing interests. If you love your constitution, you should at least admit its purpose: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
America was established for the pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of property is a different thing: a subset of happiness, if that.
Most Republicans admit that the government creates jobs if they are military jobs. That is why there can be no cuts in the military. That is also why most Republicans are hypocritical on the subject of deficits. They apply their deficit theory only to programs they dislike.
Frankly, it is a pretty silly statement that government doesn't create jobs. Of course they do. The government is full of people with jobs. All sorts of government contracts create jobs in private industry. The defence industry is entirely based upon government purchasing, for instance.
And the fact that the government creates some the assets out of which wealth is created is manifest. Think of the sales of Trident submarines or of the electricity from Hoover's dam - from which both wealth and jobs were created.
On the other hand, doing things which do not generate wealth is also a useful role government plays - as generating wealth is not the only meritorious thing a government does. To employ detectives who hunt down murderers is not constructive of wealth. To employ judges to manage court rooms is not generative of wealth. Yet most folks agree these are a good things.
Again, csl. As a rational, sentient being, how is it you don't think when relieving yourself of your dogmas? They make no sense, but they issue forth from your mouth as if they do. You are capable of knowing this, and yet you will not revisit your beliefs. They are precious to you and yet you don't defend them when challenged. You just repeat them later as if they have been holding water all this time. Like a mantra. Om.
You have me flummoxed.
I'm with you on Chinese food though. Yum.
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