---
title: What Government Should Actually Do
date: 2025-10-31T00:00:00
author: Charlie M.
category: SIGNAL
---
So I was just sitting there, right, with a half-cold cup of coffee and the sunlight kind of doing that thing where it looks like a late afternoon Instagram filter on my wall. And I was thinking, why is it so hard to figure out what government should actually do? Like, I get it, roads need fixing, and there’s the whole taxes thing, which, don’t get me started, but there must be more, right?
Scrolling through my feed, I saw this post about clean energy subsidies. Or maybe it was climate change programs? The details are fuzzy, but it got me thinking about the role of government in all of this. Are they supposed to fix the climate crisis? The post made it seem like just throwing money at the problem was enough, but I'm not so sure. I mean, I’ve tried throwing money at my workout routine—a few bucks here for a yoga class, there for a gym membership—and, spoiler alert, I still hate running.
I read somewhere, or maybe I heard it on a podcast, that around 60% of people think the government should do more about healthcare. Or was it education? It's a blur, really. But then there’s these polls where people think the government is doing too much. How does that even work? Are we just all over the place with what we want? Or maybe it’s like when I can’t decide between deleting my apps to focus or keeping them to stay connected. I ironically end up doing neither.
There was this research, I think, about how people’s happiness doesn’t necessarily increase with more government intervention. Or was it GDP? Something about Denmark, or maybe Sweden—Nordic countries, for sure—where they’re generally happy but also okay with higher taxes? That’s not something you hear every day. And does that mean we need more or less intervention? Like, should government sit back and let us figure it out, like my friend who swears by intermittent fasting but also eats pizza every other night?
And then I start doubting if understanding what government ought to do even matters. I mean, every election cycle, candidates promise big changes, and half the time, nothing happens, right? There’s this cycle—kind of like me deciding every January that this is the year I’ll get in shape, only for February to roll around and, well, you get the idea.
It's all just so confusing. On one hand, there’s a need for structured systems, like school or whatever, but on the other, there’s this idea that too much control can stifle creativity and personal growth. Like, what if every path to stability actually veers us away from discovering something better?
Ugh, I don’t know. Maybe the whole point is that there isn’t a clear answer. I mean, if I can’t even decide what I want for dinner without overthinking it, how could anyone possibly know what an entire government should do? Maybe, just maybe, it’s all right to not have a conclusion here. Just a bunch of questions floating around, like that dusty beam of sunlight on my wall.