I try and wrap my head around the arguments of friends and colleagues that, really, the Federal Government needs to intervene in more and more areas of our lives to smooth the workings of our Great Society.

But then, I think about things like how a simple, basic idea can be perverted beyond all reason by a large enough bureaucracy:

1. The Federal Government thinks it is a good idea for people to fend for themselves.

Well, okay, then. That is a principle that I think is fundamental to the founding of the USA. People should be free from government interference in their lives, provided they are mature enough to fend for themselves. we agree.

What follows, however, is this:

• The Federal Government then mandates that my wife and I, and other citizens like us, save for retirement. You know, so we won't be a "burden on society".

Well, that's unnecessary in our case, since the missus and I are already firm believers in taking care of ourselves, and part of this includes saving up for that rainy day called "retirement." But, okay, if the Federal Government feels a need to SPELL THAT OUT for the other citizens, okay.

• The Federal Government then looks at any money we earn for "self-employment," and takes a fair hunk of our money away from us  — this is that same money that we would be free to invest and save (and this part is often overlooked: give charitably to others in need), so that we wouldn't be a "burden on society," etc. etc.

• This money they then put in the Social Security program, with a promise that they will give us this money back after we retire. In dribs and drabs, or course, as they (literally) see fit.

• But, of course, they are spending our money paying off my father's generation their Social Security, which itself was spent on somethings else instead of given back to my parents' generation, and etc.

• So the chances of us getting our money back (the money we would have invested or saved, had the government just let us keep it in the first place), to spend in our retirement, to keep us from being a "burden on society?" are pretty much nil at this point.

• So, the Federal Government then has to take a lot of other people's money, to support my generation, when we — the missus and I — never asked for their help in the first place.

To sum up:

The Feds want us to take care of ourselves. We make money, The Feds then (instead of letting us keep the money to save to take care of ourselves) take our money from us — big chunks of cash, really; you have no idea. They then spend this money on other people and things. Then, to "make it up to us," they take a lot of other people's money and give it to us.

I am progressive, I guess. In the sense that I am progressively more and more dispirited by the insanity of the USA's governing members.