Importance of Government in the United States Essay Example

The government has an important role in the United States. Its regulation helps the citizens and a laissez faire government is not a good type of government fit for the U.S. As the Gilded Age was an era of  laissez faire, there were a lot of negative problems such as corruption. As a result from the Gilded Age lots of problems were made due to the fact the government was so laissez-faire, and it is a path the government should go down agian. Although it was bad, during the Progressive era the government had a “come back”, people were being held accountable for their actions in power. To sum everything up, the Progressive era was great for our government, and should be controlled more like the progressive era.

Laws have a certain job in place to protect people's safety and protect our U.S. constitutional rights. According to Professor Richard H.  McAdams at Chicago Law School, “people obey the law because they see it as a legitimate authority.” An example on how the government protects people is food safety laws, food safety laws are in place to protect people from getting sick. The government puts in place these guidelines so the food you get from the grocery store will be safe to eat. If the laws are broken in any way our FDA has fines in place for corporations who break these guidelines.  Therefore, the government needs to have these guidlines in order to protect the citizens of the United States.

Government regulations such as environmental laws not only protect the health and safety of people, but also help preserve the Earth. A government organization called EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) helps congress write laws to peserve the environment. This regulation from the government is very important as issues such as global warming have become a topic of concern. In 2008 Massachusetts and Connecticut both, “ took such action when they passed Global Warming Solutions Acts, which mandate cuts in climate-damaging emissions by 2050.” As this is local action by Massachusetts and Connecticut, they are doing their part in regulating climate control. With that being said this is another good example of why government control is not so bad, because it protects the environment for future generations.

If these laws were not in place, people or organizations could do whatever they wanted and could be dangerous. “The Jungle”, a book written by Upton Sinclair tried to expose the awful working conditions that these meat packers were facing in the book. But instead people reacted to the gruesome details of “diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat” led people concerned. The government then realized that we needed food safety laws. This relates to the point of if we didn't have these laws and regulations companies would have no regulations and could do whatever they wanted. This would not be a good thing as people would become sick and would not be good for people and their health.

During the Gilded Age leaders of the U.S. needed those regulations that we have today to do things, “the right way” meaning not being corrupted and finding a way around things. Things such as food safety laws would be harmful to have “shortcut” around a regulation. Also, for environmental laws, having government regulation over that is important. If we keep damaging our Earth ecosystems will be destroyed and will be detrimental to the environment. To sum it all up we need a non- laissez faire government because our country would not benefit from it.