Opinion

What is the Government?

When you refer to the government, what are you talking about?

Image created by Jacquelyn Lynn using MockupShots

When you say “the government should (or shouldn’t) do something,” what are you talking about?

In the United States, you’re talking about people. Individual human beings.

In the United States, our government consists of:

• Elected officials
• Unelected bureaucrats
• Unelected and virtually unfirable employees

You might be one of those people. According to the Office of Personnel Management, the federal workforce is composed of an estimated 2.1 million civilian workers. In 2020, an estimated 145 million people were full-time employees of state and local governments.

Most of those government workers are just as affected by what “the government” does as you are.

When “the government” does something, it’s because the elected officials and unelected bureaucrats have decided to take an action and have directed the unelected employees to implement it.

When you stop to think about it, the power those elected…