Exceedingly Curious

“The family is the fundamental unit of society. It is the original and best Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. . . .

“With families failing to perform their health, education, and welfare functions, the demand for government grows, whether in the form of greater policing or as a provider of other social services.  Bureaucracies must be created and they inexorably expand—indeed they become powerful lobbyists for their own preservation and expansion.”

Robert George, from a talk entitled On the Moral Purposes of Law and Government.