Even many of us who profess to be great conservatives and libertarians do not realize what that philosophy means when taken to its logical conclusion. Self-sufficiency, as was intended by the Founding Fathers and codified in our nation's constitution, means a lot of things that many of us are not prepared to endure. We, as a people, have been trained to be reliant on huge government programs for many services that communities have previously taken care of themselves. The Founders realized that government works best when it's local, and deferred most governmental authority to the states, and them likewise to counties and cities. In this century we've seen an upsurge in Federal assistance for programs such as fire, police, and ambulance protection.
Grants are available to modernize water treatment and pumping facilities.
Extra teachers are provided by Bill Clinton's fiscal largesse. Federal handouts make it all too easy for City, County, and State governments to have their hands out. On the national level, Social Security and Medicaid has done as much or more than Welfare has to destroy the American family. We have been the beneficiaries of many luxuries provided at the public trough, which in themselves are good things but some acquired by unethical means. Computers were made possible by government research, first to calculate shell trajectories, and later associated with space exploration.