At 0:05 1/14/94 -0500, gregguy@aol.com wrote:

frode@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Frode Odegard) asked the rather sweeping question of why governments get bigger.

Actually, this is one of the great (but often unsung) libertarian proofs. Governments act as any rational being acts -- in their own self interest. As the distillers of laws and collectors of taxes, however, they just have a better shot at self-interest nirvanna than the rest of us.

//greg brooks (gregguy@aol.com PGP key available on keyservers)

Any sucessful biological entity acts in its own self interest. It need not be logical or concious. The libertarian would call the governement a parasite. The book Bionomics by Rothchild examines this anology in detail.