Government Jobs Reduce Prosperity

While listening to the radio, I heard an interesting phrase "economic prosperity is the absence of government jobs." Its source appears to be a Catholic website. While pondering it, I came to the conclusion that it was powerful but imperfect. I wrote it down for later pondering.

Later I realized the problem. Some government jobs aid economic prosperity. If there were no government jobs, order would be more difficult to maintain. Who will punish wrong doers? In a perfect world in which everyone could be trusted to always do the right thing, we would need no government. We don't live in a perfect world. There are free riders, thieves, murders, fakers and frauds. Government allows laws and rules which assist and protect good people from those with bad intentions.

A better phrase would be "Government Jobs Reduce Prosperity". After the minimum level of government is passed, each additional government job is a burden on the economy. Government does not create wealth. It must take wealth from its citizens. Each government job is therefore a reduction of prosperity. Each government must be necessary. It must be something that cannot be done more efficiently by private enterprise.

TSA Example
The Transportation Security Agency was created in response to the 11 September 2011 terrorist acts. Originally part of the United States Department of Transportation in 2001, the TSA was moved to the Department of Homeland Security on March 25, 2003. It has 58,000 employees spends $8 billion a year.

That means each year $8 billion is extracted from the economy. This is an activity could easily be moved to control of the States with oversight by a national agency. All guards and screeners would be private security personnel employed by airports and airlines. State governments would certify companies to inspect security. National agencies would provide training. The federal government activity would be minimal, restricted to requiring publishing of weaknesses in security within a certain period after discovery (to allow time for correction).