Please provide feedback on the following practice English Comp CLEP essay I wrote.
Henry David Thoreau wrote in The Duty of Civil Obedience: "That government is best which governs least"
Write an essay to explain the meaning of this statement and discuss what you think should be the basis for increasing or decreasing the governments power.
In his book, "The Duty of Civil Obedience," Henry David Thoreau wrote "that government is best which governs least." What the author means by this statement is that a large government is too expensive, intrusive, and bureaucratic. I wholeheartedly agree with him.
The amount of money needed to run the United States government is enormous. Reducing the size of government would reduce the overall cost and, thus, the amount of taxes people pay. The IRS alone employs thousands of workers whose positions could be eliminated entirely if a flat tax rate were adopted. Whittling down this sector of the government could potentially free up hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, which in turn could be used to do something useful, such as reducing the national deficit.
Large governments have the tendency to become too controlling over its people. A smaller government would be less able to unduly influence people's lives. Hitler's very large and powerful government exacted control over entire countries and led to the systematic execution of more than 6 million Jewish people. If Hitler's army had not been allowed to become so large and powerful, none of this would have been able to take place.
Lastly, large governments are known to employ processes that can lead to red tape and large paper trails. Less government would mean fewer regulations and a more efficient national economy. Nearly every industrialized country in the world has access to the latest drugs and surgical procedures long before the FDA grants approval for them to be used in the United States, if ever. By reducing the number of people involved in the drug and procedure approval process, the FDA would be allowing Americans more varied choices in their healthcare.
It is clear to me that large governments tend to be detrimental to its people in many ways, including economic and personal oppression, paperwork nightmares, and bureaucratic inefficiencies. The current United States administration appears to be favoring a larger government. It is my belief that this current trend may lead to higher taxes, a reduction in personal liberty, and even more red tape.
hi, you have written goood essay but you made mistake in third line
i wholeheartedly agree , actually you can write i agree with him ,
that is enough
Well, I agree with your stance, but I would say you probably want to take a more nuanced approach. For one thing, you might want to define what you believe are the government's legitimate areas of responsibility. Should the government supply the military? the police? the court system? the school system? nationalized health care? etc. What principles do you apply when trying to decide which areas are legitimate?
Also, lose the Hitler reference. His name is used far too often in places it has no business being. If you were going to use a World War II example, Stalin and the U.S.S.R would be the obvious one anyway. Really, look at virtually any command economy, and the disadvantages of large government become fairly obvious. You might also point out that government bureaucracies, by their nature, must be more inefficient than a private company doing the same thing, that bureaucracies in fact inevitably reward inefficiency and punish efficiency. If you do mention this, you should of course explain why this is so as well.
Thank you both for your responses. I did question some of the very points you touched on but decided to go with them. I am in practice mode for the CLEP right now and will probably post a few more. Hopefully each essay will be a little better. :-)
