“…Government’s role is to encourage production and savings by ensuring individuals’ justice: that their property will be safe from theft and the depredations of invasion and war. Wealth depended upon accumulation and investment of capital (another incentive for domestic enforcement of “justice”) and, once government has funds necessary for the police, courts, and military defense, virtue—and perhaps allowing for building of roads and other infrastructure to facilitate domestic commerce and basic education to promote understanding of justice—no further taxes should be collected. Nor should government accumulate debt that becomes a future drain on capital...”

Well written and argued Walter. Yet not a nation on Earth in 2024 acts in accordance with the principles expressed in this paragraph. The prevailing sentiment of Mankind has never been, overwhelmingly, benevolence towards one’s fellow men. Rather, the prevailing sentiment of Mankind has been, for centuries on end, Taking – of lives, of property, of freedom.

Would Moses have written “Thou shalt not steal” if the Israeli tribesmen were living in peace and harmony with each other? Would Plato have written in his Republic “…So this is tyranny which by stealth and by force takes that which belongs to others…” if there was no Taking in his society.

That Earth today seems to be in a constant state of taking by individual criminals, small groups of criminals (mobs and cartels), and large groups of criminals (people who work in governments, elected or hired) would seem to belie the notion that affection or kindness toward one’s fellow man is in any way a dominant sentiment.

Joe Gabriele

Of course, we are familiar with what Ayn Rand called "the four characteristics which brand a country unmistakably as a dictatorship: one-party rule—executions without trial or with a mock trial, for political offenses—the nationalization or expropriation of private property—and censorship." Or more briefly: "A dictatorship is a country that does not recognize individual rights, whose government holds total, unlimited power over men."

By none of those criteria have we arrived at dictatorship. At the same time, we can cite government policies and actions that either violate or are portents of future violations of all four principles. Around the time of the 2020 election, Savvy Street ran an article that cited the four characteristics, and then evaluated where America stood in terms of each one. It is here: https://www.thesavvystreet.com/using-... I think the past four years have been especially notable for acceleration in the direction of dictatorship in one-party rule, political trials, and censorship. As Ayn Rand knew, of course, fascism is the form of socialism that does not nationalize industries outright, but leaves them nominally private under regulations, taxes, directives, and co-opting of managements that have the effect of making them public. Still, a great deal of freedom remains in America, including in the critical area of freedom of speech and press. What can't you say about Biden or any other public figure? What idea or principle can't you tear apart in print? Of course, the mainstream media takes the part of a fascist government in controlling what ideas and opinions reach the general public.

moral sense?

you'll have to translate that for democrats