<p>Thanks in advance. :)</p>
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Prompt: Many people believe that our government should do more to solve our problems. After all, how can one individual create more jobs or make roads safer or improve the schools or help to provide any of the other benefits that we have come to enjoy? And yet expecting that the government - rather than individuals - should always come up with the solution to society's ills may have made us less self-reliant, undermining our independence and self-sufficiency.
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<p>Should people take more responsibility for solving problems that affect their communities or the nation in general? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations."
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<pre><code> “The sole responsibility of the government is to protect us from others. It is when the government attempts to protect us from ourselves that they have gone too far.” These immortal words, spoken by Ronald Regan, embody the idea that the government should not interfere in one’s own life. A vast amount of examples can be used to prove this.
Adam Smith said in his Wealth of Nations that man should “allow the invisible hand the ruling of the people.” Smith is often regarded as the father of economics and was a firm believer in a nation ruled by the people. His opinion was that the government should never interfere with the economy. If left alone, man will industrialize and ultimately better the nation. He used this analogy to prove his point: there is a character named John who wants to enter the sculpturing business. John first decides t make a wooden vulture and sell it for an extremely high price. No one buys the vulture. Then, John revises his work and creates a wooden table. He offers it at a reasonable price, and it sells immediately. Had the government (or anyone else, for that matter) interfered to help John sell the vulture, the economy would be hurt. This is because John would profit from an undesirable transaction. When John makes the table though, a beneficial item is introduced into the market and both parties flourish –John and the buyer. It is only because the government did not interfere that John was able to succeed in a way that everyone benefits.
The United States was founded under the notion of self-sufficiency. It is only because England was too strict and interfered in one’s life too much that America became its own nation. The funding fathers knew this, and thus kept John Locke’s “contract” theory in mind when they formed America. The contract theory states that the government’s sole job was to protect its citizens from others. If it exceeded these limits, the nation would have a right to secede. In response to the Federalists, Thomas Jefferson said that “the power of the government is the power to kill.” He thus believed that man should be independent and entirely self-sufficient; only when he is harmed by others men should the government interfere. In addition, Jefferson believed that any affliction of a great enough magnitude would either be fixed by a private enterprise or it is a reflection of the priorities of the people and thus should remain.
Man should be independent and self-relying. It is only in times necessary to enforce law and order that the government should ever interfere. This is supported by the claims of Adam Smith, the founding fathers, and John Locke. Only when man is truly self-responsible will a nation truly thrive. Only when people take more responsibly for solving problems will man take advances into a brighter, more utopian future.
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(That’s why I’m always fearful of using Biblical examples, even though I go to a private Christian High School.) I filled up all the space in my prompt booklet, which was what I’m aiming towards. Next, I’ll try to incorporate a plethora of pertinent vocabulary words.</p>