Unity and Government

Here come old flat top
He come groovin' up slowly
He got ju-ju eyeballs
He's one holy roller
--The Beatles

Increasingly, it seems, calls can be heard for 'unity.' We need to cooperate and work together to solve our problems, go the chants.

Many want to blame Donald Trump and his 'divisive rhetoric' for the problem. Those people have short, or more likely selective, memories. Trump's predecessor was elected under the pretense that he would be a Great Unifier. He failed miserably on this front, becoming more of a Divider-In-Chief.

In reality, disunity and divisiveness have been on the rise for decades and transcends presidential personality. Lack of social cooperation is directly proportional to government size which of, course, has reached gargantuan proportions.

The natural mechanism for social cooperation is the market, where people engage in voluntary exchange. Markets exist for the exchange of economic resources, but also for less tangible goods such ideas, moral support, and charity.

As government grows, those markets shrink. Resources are expropriated. Regulations are imposed. Force crowds out volition.

Producers whose resources are taken by force become less cooperative by nature as they circle the wagons trying to protect what is rightly theirs.

As government grows, so does the division. Factions increasingly battle over control of the strong arm of the state, and will stop at nothing to keep others from gaining such control.

Those who truly desire social unity would be wise to decrease the size of the state.