Thursday, February 19, 2009

Limited government: USA population at founding vs. current state population

When the USA government was created the founders wanted a limited federal governement with states and the people keeping most powers.  The population of the whole USA then (3.9M) was about the same as an average state now (WI is 5.6M).  Would our founders now suggest that states also be limited with local county government and people keeping most powers?  The USA would be quite different if both federal and state were severely limited and most power was local.  Each person has much more access to their county board than they have access to their state or federal representitives so each person would have more say about how they are governed.

Population numbers from: