Government

"It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect."

--James Madison, to an unidentified correspondent, 1833

This is definitely a different attitude towards government than what our nation seems to have now. If we stub a toe, we want the government to put a band-aid on it. We should become more self-reliant as a nation and then our need for bigger government would diminish. Health care, welfare, government bailouts, FEMA, and even public schools (and many more) were never intended to be a part of our federal government. It is and always has been human nature to want a big government. We even see that in the Book of Mormon. When Lehi died, the people wanted Nephi to be their king. Nephi warned the people against this but they insisted. Americans continue to insist on bigger and bigger government. The problem with this is it is very easy to go bigger, but almost impossible to go smaller.