the more civic-minded we are, the more we can make government 'go away', not by drowning it in the tub, but by making it redundant through breaking up its work more down to the local level.

i don't see that happening till the price of travel reflects reality, and people really have to pay attention to their neighbourhoods, not just use them as stepping stones, or rest stops.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty