Why do people hate the government so much?

[ShazzieB]

24. Yes!

Remember this (in)famous quote?

"I think you all know that I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help." -- Ronald Reagan

That was the first time that I can personally recall hearing someone who was the actual head of the government saying, in effect, "Government BAD!" so loudly and clearly. At the time, I thought it was a nonsensical statement, but an awful lot of people obviously agreed with it and still do.

Reagan did not invent this anti-government mindset, but he did a lot, with his "gee golly gosh" phony folksiness, to popularize and set in cement the view that 1) all the government was good for was wasting money, and 2) anything the government did or wanted to do was, by definition, a waste of money.

During his 8 years in office, he also was big on cutting funding to social safety net programs of any kind. Among other things, the number of unhoused people in this country shot up during his administration and has continues to be a serious problem all themse years later.

I blame Reagan for a lot of things, many of them stemming from his eagerness to convince voters that the government should NOT be spending money on things that might actually help people improve their daily lives.