It logically follows that part of our civil contract involves the government in various areas of our lives to make us more prosperous, healthier and happier – to improve our welfare. The question then is if this is a proper and necessary part of our government, how and in what ways is our government best suited to fulfill this mission? And from this ill-defined goal we are left with the ill-conceived notions of politicians; and nothing good can come from that. So we are left with the requirement to rationally and logically deduce what endeavors the government should engage in to fulfill its welfare obligation.
The easiest to grasp is health. The government has a vested interest in protecting and promoting the health of its citizens. This is especially true in areas where the public would not be adequately capable or prudent to undertake efforts that prevented unhealthy events or that advanced healthy conditions. So the government has a fundamental authority the task of enacting laws, policies and programs that reduce disease, advance medical science, and extend the quality of health care for the general population. The real challenge for government is how to determine the most efficient and productive ways to do this is, not whether government should be engaged at all.
Improving and advancing the prosperity of citizens at first glance almost seems to be socialism; but as with most concepts you are blindly jumping in the dark and even when you land don’t know where you are so don’t jump. The government invests in many efforts that provide infrastructure and facilities that support the economic power of the country and public. This public investment creates economic value that enables the private sector to expand its own economic value. Roads and transportation systems extend access to markets and resources, power networks and generation systems provide cost effective power to support both producers and consumers, and basic research provides breakthrough ideas and technologies that make entire new markets and businesses possible. Such governmental sponsored activities also create jobs that increase the quantity of money flowing into the consumer market place. This additional income expands demand and thus further increases business. Thus the role for government in generating prosperity is in investing in areas that provide opportunities or infrastructure that increases its citizens’ ability to engage in economic business development more efficiently and competitively.
And to round out promoting welfare there is the happiness facet. The government’s role in promoting happiness is probably not considered a government responsibility because it seems just not something you think of a government doing. But let’s look at happiness from the perspective of creating a society where people have opportunity, where their natural environment is pleasant, and where their lives are not subject to brutal, miserable, soul-crushing poverty and despair. This responsibility is like many of the other purposes of government, if a society doesn’t strive to fulfill that role then the society pays the costs of its negligence.
The Founding Fathers were cognizant of the fact that a free and democratic society would only thrive, prosper and endure if the members as a whole derived value from the society. It turns out that the most vibrant economic engine is based on a large economic base. Wealth and economic strength is not created by the wealthy, but from the broadest and most economically engaged middle-class. Thus the government should be engaged in promoting the general welfare because lacking health, prosperity and happiness guarantees a society’s failure; and that would violate the next contractual clause in our Constitutional agreement.
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