[JauntyHatAngle]

>It’s a mistake if you believe that the government ... should act in the interests of its citizens.

I disagree here.

I think a government should act in the interests of its citizens, and there are countries where this still occurs.

The argument you are making is whether the US still does this is fair, but they absolutely SHOULD be doing it.

[gdulli]

They're saying the subject of the headline is a mistake. Not that the mistake is believing that's the purpose of government.

[dnautics]

What exactly is the purpose of government?

[sdenton4]

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with caves. Someone wrote a book about it once.

http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html

(Less sarcastically, the Republic transitions pretty quickly from a discussing of "what's a good life" to "how can we structure society (and government) to help people live well?" It's a good book, even if the conclusions are a bit suspect.)