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> But how will you reduce the government under the current system? Isn't campaign finance reform a necessary step?

You reduce government by advocating for it. You promote ideas and candidates that will cut government income, control, and spending. The problem is that Government is too big and too powerful. Merely trying to make government function better, without intentionally cutting it, is like trying to make a severely obese man more comfortable by treating his diabetes, high blood pressure, joint problems, etc, but not restricting his caloric intake: it just makes the problem worse.

In computer science, a common way to solve complex problems is just to reduce their size. You sort a big list by splitting it and recursively sorting the smaller lists. You could make the problems of the US government much more manageable by simply abolishing the Federal government and making the fifty states independent. There would still be problems with government, but the problems would be an order of magnitude smaller. Repeat this process until government is truly local.



Lessig's contention is that you can't make significant changes to the government in it's current form. That's the whole point.


Lessig's whole point is that you can't effectively advocate for it without money. That's the crux of the whole problem he highlights.




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