Generally, in small societies, democracy is more successful than in large societies.
In countries like India or the United States, the federal government has become so large that they take decisions that are not necessarily in the interest of the individual. This is different from Switzerland, where we have municipalities, “Gemeinden”, and states, “Cantons”, with a lot of decentralized power, which I find very desirable.
Basically, over the last, I would say, 100 years, the Keynesians and the
Neo-Keynesians thereafter propagated their view that the larger the
government and the more the interventions the better a society becomes.
They have managed to discredit the Austrian School of Economics. As a
result, society in general has turned into an entitlement society where we
have an insurance policy for everything and the government is expected to
pay the bills. And so, the freedom of the individual is undermined. But with
freedom comes responsibility, personal responsibility. This has been pushed
aside and people don’t realize that they can’t be free if they don’t take on
responsibility. Adam Smith said the government should be in charge of a
well-structured legal system, low taxes and defense and nothing else!
Instead, we have more and more socialism and state planning, which
diminishes people’s freedom. I believe we need to have a huge change in society to make people understand that if you want to have freedom you also have to take on personal responsibility.
