As Government Grows, Our Freedom Shrinks

How long will we remain the freest country in the world? That’s hard to say.

John Green | July 27, 2026

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Americans legitimately feared an invasion of the homeland.  The threat of living under a military dictatorship heightened our appreciation of — and determination to defend — our freedom.  But in 21st-century America, the United States is the sole superpower, and the likelihood of a foreign invasion seems remote.

Perhaps that’s why we take our freedom for granted — because we don’t sense it at risk.  Unfortunately, our sense of security has blinded us to a much more insidious risk to our freedom: a government that we allowed to grow, far beyond anything our founders envisioned.

The men who risked everything to bequeath freedom to us understood that freedom wanes as government grows.  That’s why they gave us the 10th Amendment — to keep the government small.

During my elementary school years (way back in the pre-internet ’60s), we were taught that boys will be boys, girls can get pregnant (because boys will be boys), socialism is bad, and freedom is what makes us exceptional.  Now most schools teach that every problem needs a government solution.

This “government needs to solve every problem” mindset has given us an explosion of government overhead, with a correspondingly negative impact on our freedom.

Per USAFacts, our government currently employs about 2.9 million civilians, not including state and local government employees.  To feed that monster, the federal budget has grown to an astronomical 7.3 trillion dollars per year (per the Treasury Department) — about 2 trillion of which is borrowed annually against our children’s future.  It would require the gold of 12 Fort Knoxes just to pay the federal government’s bills — every year!  Unfortunately, that is also money taken away from wealth creation — each and every year.  That financial burden is a huge drag........

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