Though the size of the federal government has exploded under the Obama administration - and the president wants to make government even larger - most Americans fortunately still work in the private sector, not in federal, state or local government.
Of course, it has to be that way, because without the private sector to pay taxes, government could not exist. Government does not create wealth and economic growth, after all. It only shuffles wealth around.
So let's say that like most Americans, you work in the private sector. What guarantee do you have that your current job will exist for the rest of your life, paying the wages to which you feel you are entitled? The answer, as everyone should know, is that you have no such guarantee.
Even a successful company can fall on hard times. Consumers may start buying its competitors' goods and services, for instance. That can force the company to lay off workers or even shut down. So clearly, there can be no total job security in a free market.
But did you realize that our federal government tries to create job security for workers in some sectors of the economy at the expense of other workers?
Washington pays out billions of dollars in farm subsidies - in many cases to wealthy farmers. That protects farmers from the normal ups and downs in the market to which people in other lines of work are subjected.
We spotted a revealing passage in a McClatchy Newspapers article on subsidies: "What Minnesota farmers want ... is not money for nothing, but protection against going out of business in bad times."
But don't we all want that? Wouldn't we all like it if there were a magical way to keep receiving our pay even if the company we work for goes bankrupt? Of course we would!
But if you're a plumber or waitress or an employee in some other field that doesn't get taxpayer subsidies, you are denied that "government protection."
That's bad enough, but subsidies for farmers are paid for by the taxes of other workers who enjoy no such protection - and who will lose their own jobs if their business fails.
How can it possibly be the job of government to prop up workers in one sector of the economy at the expense of others? It isn't! But the farm lobby uses its clout in Congress to keep farm subsidies flowing year after year.
There is nothing economical - much less constitutional - about that. Yet it is the sort of injustice that occurs when special interests are given priority over the national interest.