I found myself reminded today of the necessity to keep the relative size of things in perspective. The term big-government does not refer just to the number of people involved or the geographic area it represents. A prime example of that is the over-reach that the Ridgeway Town Council is executing over the monies raised by their all-volunteer festivals. Pig on the Ridge and Arts on the Ridge are major volunteer undertakings that require a merciless number of man-hours and dedication.
Embleton
If the Town of Ridgeway wants to be in control of how the funds raised from volunteer events are spent, then they should hire paid promotional companies to put the events on. Of course that would resolve the issue since the cost of paying people to do the work would far outweigh any profit generated from the festivals.
While government of any size can serve a very necessary purpose, in my opinion, big-government is a determent to enterprise by the people and for the people. The concept of big-government is based on the assumption that the governed are not capable of making their own intelligent decisions and therefore the government needs to make decisions for them.
Personally, I say “no thank you”. These all-volunteer festivals have earned the right to select where their proceeds, derived from their hard work and willingness to spend their own precious time and resources, be utilized. Certainly the input from the Town and the Town Council should be considered but they should not be the controlling force.