The three types of governmental spending

Tom Mullen argues in his blog that governments spend money for three purposes:

1. Security (protection from force and fraud);
2. Public services (which include roads, bridges, and public utilities); and
3. Redistribution of wealth.

He characterizes libertarians as tolerating (Endorsing seems to be too strong a word) governmental involvement in security activities. He sees conservatives as also endorsing government funds for public services; while only liberals and progressives would support taxpayer money to redistribute wealth.

Mr. Mullen does his readers (and now mine) a great service in clarifying the issues in terms of governmental spending. For one thing, he has clearly exposed how meaningless the term conservative has become in our current political debate.