A less intrusive government that grants me greater personal freedom sounds attractive.  But so do all of the goods and service I receive with the discounts attached for participating in bulk participation in a growing state.  Max Weber felt that the expansion of bureaucracy was an inevitable result of increased technical sophistication, both with regard to material and social scientific issues.  Small government advocates claim that Weber’s fatalism is unjustified.  I’m not sure when fatalism is justified or not, but based on the growth of government employees in the last 80 years, I’d say Weber’s looking pretty good.  

(Courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics)