Small government is better than large government

Greetings. Happy to share thoughts today. I'll define my stance here and rebut yours in Round 2 if I have no space to do it here. There are three main terms here as far as the proposition goes, and many terms to define in your 1st round argument. I'll start with the proposition and address yours later. 1. Small Gov. 2. Large Gov. 3. "Better" I'll define these concepts, and then present my position. 1. Small Gov. refers to the removal of regulation and government waste until the government is as small as possible. 2. Large Gov. refers to a state with high taxes, high public spending, and more central power. 3. "Better" refers to the situation you would prefer. My personal position would be that Government should always be larger if the increase in "size" can be justified. This means that needless regulation, or laws with no point, would be on the chopping block for me as well. My position is that the government currently is too "large" in some aspects (military, overcomplicated tax system) and that there certainly are some undue regulations, however a "large" government is justifiably far superior to a "small" government because there are things government needs to control to protect the public from large corporations or rich individuals. Healthcare is one example where a bigger government would be vastly superior to a small one. I will go into more detail on some of these points below. This essentially means the best government for me would be a Goldilocks not too small not too large version of Government that always seeks to weed out regulations, agencies, and redundancies, that also seeks new ways to improve the general welfare of its citizens. At this point, I will go over what I see as your more broad secondary proposition of "moral and historical examination" and "limited to defending life, liberty, and property," and your points, all of which are a bit too non-specific to cover here, so I will address the exact arguments you use instead of the general concepts. Rebuttal: 1. You say Larger governments are more likely to impede on people's rights. As you should know, whether or not it is more likely to do so is not an argument against the institution itself, merely that it needs to be controlled better. Dictatorships can be run on small or large governments. 2. You say "human rights" without defining your term. Human rights do not exist by nature or God. If you have a list of specific "rights" you want to debate more specifically, I'll go into it then. "Entitlements" are the same as "Rights." Entitlements are rights granted to specific classes by our Government to facilitate our civilization's progress. Taxes are necessary to pay for the Rights/Entitlements a Government grants its citizenry. You do not have a right to not pay taxes, because you benefit from the entitlements that we all get as US Citizens. Those who benefit the most from our society are expected to contribute the most to furthering our society. If you make $1M, you will pay more than someone who makes $30K, but someone who is upper middle class to lower upper class is still benefiting far more from society than the $30K person. If you understand how our tax system works, we are all paying the same amount of taxes on the same amount of money. The first X amount of dollars is taxed at 0, then the next X amount of dollars is taxed by a higher amount, and so on. We also have MANY taxes that effect the poor far more than the wealthy. Income and estate taxes impact the rich more percentage wise, but no one can argue they are not better off than the poor. 2a. Education as an entitlement. We all benefit from a public that is educated. The rich pay more than the poor but they gain more knowledgeable workers in return. 2b. Healthcare. This industry is barely regulated and is the prime example of how "big" government can be vastly better than small government. Look at every country with universal healthcare. We drag behind them on outcomes AND cost to the state. http://reverbpress.com... On top of that, the rich gain workers who are more efficient at their jobs, less stressed, and Companies will no longer have to figure out how healthcare will work, shop for it, deal with complaints, et cetera. 2c. Welfare. Another word for this would be "charity." No matter how well your society functions, there will always people who either 1. Can't work, or 2. Will never be worth what it costs to keep them alive. Instead of letting these people suffer and die we take care of them. The rich benefit from this because the money is injected immediately back into the economy. It doesn't go into savings. AND we get to live in a country where we don't let people die. Morally, it is vastly superior. 2d. Roads and Military Protection are also necessary. I'll talk of Efficiency in R2. My question to you: What specifically makes our government too "large" right now?