Discussion/Essay Questions for
Take Me to Your Government

Malvolia

  1. What are the differences between the Magog’s assistance programs, which are intended to destroy motivation and make people dependent and miserable, and the social assistance programs of the modern welfare state?
    For those who can find no essential difference, how do you explain why modern countries have adopted such apparently harmful policies?
  2. What is the difference between the Magog’s programs of having the state favor selected social groups in order to cultivate hostility and resentment, and modern programs which target social and economic groups for government assistance?
  3. What is the fundamental difference between the Magog’s evil-intended prosperity fine and the modern progressive income tax?

Mandaat

  1. In Mandaat, government has stepped in to regulate anything that can go wrong. How can this creeping unlimited government be prevented? Develop and defend a rule that tells policymakers when they must not act even if it appears that more regulation might help make things safer.
  2. Mandaat has a system of public religion which incorporates the principle of forced funding (taxes) and compulsory attendance, and equal access to all. In what way is this system different from modern public education?
  3. What’s wrong with a system of legislation where lawmakers don’t read the laws they are voting on? (Keep in mind that this is the modern legislative system: the quote of Dr. Doasdo justifying not reading laws being voted on comes from a U. S. Senator (Russell Long) defending the practice).
  4. Is being a “nibbleary” (evader of seemingly wrongheaded laws) a morally justified position? Under what circumstances? Was the princess justified when she evaded a law in Nueva Malvolia?

Nueva Malvolia

  1. In Nueva Malvolia, child labor laws are a device to arrest the development of youngsters and propel them into wasting time and bad habits. In the US, child labor laws are a device to protect youth from harm. Who’s right?
  2. What’s the essential difference between mobbery and taxation?
  3. In what situation can a system of using force to raise funds, like mobbery, be justified on the grounds that it serves a social purpose (i.e., giving shoes to poor children)?
  4. What is the essential difference between television (or i-babble machines) and Occurama? (Remember, Occurama is a habit-forming device designed to keep people from challenges and constructive activity).
  5. What is the essential difference between “meddling” as practiced in Nueva Malvolia to destroy idealistic activists’ projects, and government regulation to ensure fairness, (or health, or safety) as practiced in the US? Should the “Men of Madison” club have been closed down because it wasn’t gender neutral? (This was an actual case).

Voluntaria

  1. Why can’t a system like Voluntaria, where there is no government based on the initiation of force, come into existence? What prevents society from moving toward it?
  2. Is force (initiation of force) a healthy foundation for social institutions like schools and welfare programs?
  3. Is force (initiation of force) a healthy foundation for limiting the negative externalities of economic activities? (e.g., the case of the slate mill, and zoning laws to prevent the construction of the shoe house).
  4. Can voluntary systems of regulation (which do not rely on the initiation of force) work? (e.g., Voluntaria’s restaurant regulation and the home safety inspection at Nayle’s).
  5. Is the American legal liability system, which relies on the initiation of force, a healthy foundation for redressing non-violent wrongs and injuries? Can a voluntary approach accomplish the same objectives? (The case of the tureena).
  6. Which system works best in cultivating social habits of generosity, courtesy and cooperation: a voluntary one or force-based government?