A Failing Republic, part 3

The hardest part of economics is realizing how inter-dependent each system is on some other system. The bailout of the auto industry is a perfect example: we can spend tax-payer money to bail it out, or we can let it fail and unemploy thousands of workers, losing their tax revenue, and putting them on government aid. Both scenarios cost the taxpayer a lot of money, so the question is: which one leads us to the point we want to end up? This is the third really important lesson in failing economics.
3. The 'government' is NOT an entity.
When we talk about "the government" we talk about it as if it is a self-aware independent being. "The government" should do something about Katrina. "The government" should provide healthcare. "The government" is in debt. We almost personify the government, and we need to stop it. The idea of a federal government was so that the US could be a representative republic. Pure democracy was (and arguably still IS) impossible, given the land mass and transportation abilities of the US in 1789. So the constitution allowed each state to elect 2 senators and then a certain number of representatives, respective to the census of each state. This gave equal power to each state in the senate (small states would not be ignored), and weighted power in the house (larger populated states would have more voice). An executive branch was created to oversee, and a judicial branch was created to be the final say on whether or not laws were constitutional. That's all the government is. It was given very limited power and have a very small pervue. It was financially supported by the states. The federal government was nearly 100 years old before it passed the first federal tax on to it's citizens. This tax had a single purpose: to pay for the civil war.
The problem is, where there is money, there is power. As money-hungry, power-hungry people took more and more control, the government became a huge, self-aware ogre. Instead of the government being a group of representatives making decisions that affect the well-being of the citizens, it became an entity. the government now defines education, business, healthcare, and industry. As this happened, the civil war tax was never stopped as promised. Instead, we are taxed more and more to feed "the government." We have come to believe that it is our job to give peace offerings to 'the government' and wait for 'the government' to tell us what to do and then to take care of us.
The government is draining our economy. Capitalism is what made this country great. Capitalism is what has made this country rich and prosperous. and the laws of equilibrium ultimately keep capitalism in checque (through an ebb and flow process). the government wants more of the capitalists money, so it socializes industries that were once privatized. the politicians take advantage of every capitalist indescretion to prove their point and whittle away at the rights and freedoms of business owners, and thereby private citizens. Those elected to the "government class" have a free ride. "the government" has a direction that it wants to go (take healthcare reform for example), and it simply goes that way. Someone afraid to vote for the bill, for fear of voter backlash, is simply promised a government job in the new healthcare system. They have become "governmentalized," marching to the beat of an over-indulgent ogre. The politicians are no longer there for the good of the common citizen. They are there to get rich and powerful...the type of elitist class that the patriots of the late 18th century gave life and family to fight against.
We, as 21st century Americans, welcome it with open arms. This government, right now, demands more taxes, allows less true representation, and cares less about the average citizen than England did in 1776.....