 A question for Occupy Wall Street. What is Government? Adapted from the State by Frederick Bastiat. Someone should offer a prize for a simple and accurate definition of the word Government. It would be a great service to society. What exactly is the Government? What is it capable of doing? What should it do? All we know for sure is that it is a mysterious entity that is expected to fix the problems in society. It must be the most solicited, tormented, overwhelmed, admired, accused and provoked of any entity in the world. But who should the Government listen to? The left wants one thing, the right wants another. The country is in a mess and the Government does not know who to listen to or where to turn. A hundred thousand protesters cry out all at once, protect the labour unions, end the tyranny of capital, perform experiments in space and advance medical knowledge, repair and expand the infrastructure, educate the youth, care for the elderly, lend money without interest to anyone who wants to borrow, free oppressed people, encourage the arts and provide musicians, painters and architects, control the borders and at the same time send troops everywhere in the world. The country has again and again changed administrations because they have each failed to satisfy our demands. Perhaps this is because our demands from the Government are contradictory. I know this is an outrageous proposition but if I am proven wrong I will gladly retract it. I would be pleased if someone had really discovered an inexhaustible entity calling itself the Government which has bread for all mouths, work for all hands, credit for all ventures, medicine for all sufferings, advice for all problems, courage for all doubts, truth for all minds. An entity which can provide for all of our needs, satisfy our curiosity, correct our errors, repair our faults and exempt us from the need to exercise prudence, judgement, organisation, frugality, self-control and diligence. How could I possibly not desire to see such a discovery made? The more I think about it the more I see that nothing could be more desirable. This is why I would like to see it simply and accurately defined, perhaps by offering a prize to the first discoverer of such a marvellous entity. Clearly no one has yet discovered it since each party keeps being overturned by the people precisely because it has not fulfilled our contradictory demands. There is an inclination which exists in all of us to divide our lives into two parts, throwing the trouble onto others and keeping the benefits for ourselves. Of course this is the motivation of slavery and theft, however they manifest themselves. We recognise slavery and theft is wrong if they are presented nakedly as such, but the political solution of having one group pay for the needs of another group is consistent with the idea that gave birth to the evils of slavery and theft. Nowadays the oppressor no longer acts directly and with his own hands against the victim, our conscience has become too sensitive for that. The oppressor and his victim are still present, but there is a middleman between them, which is the government, the law itself. What better way to silence our conscience? We each apply to the government for help. Look how much I have to work and yet how little I have. In order to fix this imbalance I would like to take a part of the possessions of others but only so much as I need and only from those much more fortunate than I am. But since stealing is dangerous, can you help me with this? Can't you get me a decent place to live? I'm a small businessman, can't you restrict my competitors? I'm a student, can't you lend me money at zero percent interest? Can't you guarantee my retirement? Can't you guarantee that my medical bills will all be paid? With the help of government, I can achieve what I want with a clear conscience since it has all been done legally. I will have all the advantages of theft without the risk or shame. It is supposed to be only the destitute who receive help and only the wealthy who are asked to give help. It is impossible to feel anger towards an oppressor who is destitute or sympathy for a victim that is wealthy. It isn't the cause of all this unrest, the very fact that the government is really acting in the interests of the wealthy, by driving up the debt and causing inflation even as social programs are cut. Until I can find another definition of the word government, I'm going to give it my own definition. Maybe it will win the prize, here it is. Government is the great fiction by which everyone attempts to live at the expense of everyone else. It has always been the case that everyone is more or less profiting from the work done by others but today no one would dare say such a thing, we even hide this truth from ourselves. Every lobby, every pressure group, every racial or other minority group is always applying to the government. They say, you can take from the public legally and honestly, so take on our behalf and then spend the money in our district and by our products. The government is perfectly happy to follow this diabolical advice because the government is composed of administrators and elected officials who are also human beings. Like anyone else, government employees are tempted by the opportunity to increase their own wealth and influence. The government is quick to perceive the advantages it derives from the duties that the public entrust to it. The government will happily take as much as it can so that a large share will remain for itself and it will not stop until it has consumed a disastrous portion of the public's productive energy. Our contradictory requests place the government in a dilemma. If it refuses to grant our requests, it is accused of weakness, ill-will and incapacity. If it tries to grant them, it is obliged to load us with new taxes, new debt and to print more money. It ends up doing more harm than good and this results in even more public disapproval and unrest. Each election cycle, we throw the bums out, only to see them replaced by new faces that disappoint us yet again. Once they take power, the new politicians are just as unable to meet our demands as the ones we just voted out. They soon find that it is much easier to make promises than to keep them. They try to keep their promise to increase student loan subsidies to appease the youth vote. They try to keep their promise to cut taxes on low-income workers to appease the labour vote. But the contradiction is constantly confronting them. If they expand social programs, they must attend to the budget through taxes, debt or inflation. If they hold down taxes, debt and inflation, they must abstain from expanding social programs. Finally, the public will lose all patience with the government. At this point, what can the government do? It will take bold and decisive measures. It will unite all its forces in order to maintain itself. It will smother opinion, resort to arbitrary measures, ridicule its former policies and declare that it is impossible to do the right thing except at the risk of being unpopular. In short, it proclaims itself governmental. And it is here that other candidates for popularity are waiting for it. They promise the same allusion to the public, achieve the same power, fail to achieve the same success and soon meet the same end. It is not enough to make signs and issue demands to the government. Such behaviour is either pathetic and beggar-like on the one hand or lawless and violent on the other hand. Instead, we need to truly absorb the meaning of the phrase, we are the 99%. For every 99 of us, there is just one crook or crony in big business and the corrupt halls of government power. We are the 99% means that things only got this bad because we let it get this bad. We are the 99% means we need to take responsibility for this mess and change our minds about what we will allow the government and its big business cronies and lobbyists to get away with. No more printing money without our permission. No more public debt without our say-so. No new taxes that we didn't approve. No more wars without our permission. No more bailouts without our approval. No new benefits or programs that we didn't ask for until you figure out how to pay for it within the budget we've already given you. The government is supposed to serve the people, not the other way round. This time we remind the 1% who's boss.