In thinking about the various levels of government that currently exist in the US, I have come to believe that the most important is the county. In counties you generally have both municipal and rural areas. Most are large enough to engage in self insurance programs for their citizens. This alone would be vastly better than a single national health insurance system like Obamacare. A second function that would be very appropriate at the county level would be an equitable sharing of funding for all students from Pre-K to high school. I am strongly in favor (if government is to have any role in education) of having funding that attaches to the student. I don't think there should be public schools, but only private ones, run by educators, but chosen by parents for their children, funded at least in part by an equitable distribution of education taxes at the county level. This plan gets rid of the need for school districts, though schools may work together for issues like maintenance and supplies.
As for the least important level of government, I think the states have become obsolete. Instead I think that metros, associations of counties surrounding a large city, makes much more sense.
I live in the Philadelphia metro. All of South Jersey (the southern half of New Jersey) really is centered on Philadelphia, not Trenton (the capital) or Newark (the largest city) or New York City. North Jersey would really be part of the New York City metro. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_Valley#Metropolitan_statistical_area_(MSA)
The purpose of government is to allow people to cooperate in accomplishing deeds that the majority find necessary.
Federations are a manifestation of the natural law principle of subsidiarity. The Dolphin canton takes this principle very seriously. What that means practically is that, whenever any national government program is being reviewed, the first question asked will be: can this be better handled at a lower level of government (such as the state, county, municipality, or perhaps outside of government altogether)? If the question is answered in the affirmative, the canton will not be supporting the program at the national level, though it may support whatever assistance may be needed to transfer the program to whatever level may be judged more appropriate. Isn't this making things worse for the taxpayer? Probably not. National programs such as Medicare are so rife with corruption that pushing the program down to a lower level will probably result in better oversight. In addition, this provides the possibility of innovation, which a single top-heavy national program will squelch. Economies of ...
One of the top stories in the news today is about the US Supreme Court hearing arguments of an abortion case that may result in a reversal of Roe v Wade. As the interim champion of the Dolphin canton [1], I would not support government giving money to Planned Parenthood. It should be clear that opposition to abortion will never go away, which means that Roe v Wade, like Plessy v Ferguson (1886), went beyond where the people really stand on the issues. Plessy v Ferguson allowed segregated schools in some instances. This was reversed by Brown v Board of Education (1954).
There are two things in my mind that make it impossible to accept the right of abortion. First, it is clear from biology that the very first cell produced by the joining of the sperm and egg cells (the zygote) has a genetic signature different from both parents. This continues to be true throughout the period where it is called an embryo until the birth of a new human being. Therefore, the fetus is not part of the woman, but ...
