What is the proper role of government? Is there a distinction between small government and limited government? These are among the issues explored in this interview between Ben Shapiro and Senator Ben Sasse.
(As an aside, you may be wondering why we link to so much US material. The answer is that we have to look to the United States for these discussions because Theresa May is not interested in either small government, or indeed limited government, because she has a busy schedule ahead of her criminalising upskirting and shelling out taxpayers’ money to combat loneliness.)
Senator Sasse also discusses his book The Vanishing American Adult, which I have read and is very good.
The book is more parenting than politics and tackles the issue of how to build and bring up children to become independent, self-sufficient adults, not the melting snowflakes we see on campus everywhere.
Sasse explains that there is a price to be paid if government seeks to erase all hardship from life. The truth is that everyday hardships, from stressful school runs to clearing up your kid’s vomit at 3am, build relationships and bonds that we all need to have a meaningful and fulfilled life. If the government seeks to erase this, it leaves very little, which (as I tried to explain before) generates loneliness and emptiness that no government programme can fill.
It’s worth a listen.
