Since Government Fails...

The government’s botched response to hurricane Katrina is (take your pick):

1) A sign of the dangers of shrinking government so small that it can fit in a bathtub.

2) A sign of the dangers of big government bureaucracy, which not only fails to respond effectively to disaster itself, but blocks others from giving assistance.

3) A sign that our government is big in the wrong places, and therefore not able to respond well enough to the things that are really part of its core functions.

People on both sides of the “big government” debate have read the Katrina aftermath in their favor, and with reason, because, on the face of it, government seems to have screwed up in both directions, from the leave everyone to drive themselves out evacuation plan to the guns that police in neighboring suburbs are said to have aimed at people fleeing New Orleans....

While it’s foolish to believe that government can do no right, it’s wise to remember that government can’t do everything well. Second, the reminder that government should have limits. We may not all agree on what those limits should be, but that there are some boundaries that should be maintained on government’s powers, we should agree. And, third, a tendency to see government as performing particular practical functions, rather than as a moral teacher for everyone. As I’ve said many times, I don’t think it’s government’s business to make us all moral; that’s a matter for culture, not government. It is government’s business to establish justice, protect the weak, and provide such public goods as can be better handled by government.

[via Noli Irritare Leones]