More government does not make the world a better place.

The Denver Post encourages the U.S. Senate to expand AmeriCorps.

In an editorial, "A renewal of Kennedy's call for national service," The Post says

"Considering the trillions being spent on bailouts for failing companies, the $6 billion that would be spent on this program over five years is a wise investment in the infrastructure and fabric of our country."

In other words, since we have wasted trillions of dollars on socializing failed businesses, what's another $6 billion gonna hurt?

Colorado's own freshman representative, Jared Polis, is all in favor of the bill. According to a NOLA.com article, Polis thinks the bill "reaches out to all Americans from all walks of life and asks them to commit to service. During these difficult times, our nation needs the help of each and every one of us more than ever."

Polis, like other statists, has confused "each and every one of us" with "another government program." Subsitute the latter phrase with the former one. That's what Polis is really saying.

Of course, Barack Obama makes the same mistake. He believes that

"At this moment of economic crisis, when so many people are in need of help and so much needs to be done, this could not be more urgent. It is up to every one of us to do his or her small part to make the world a better place.”

The effect of expanding AmeriCorps is not to help "every one of us do his or her small part to make the world a better place." The effect is to expand government in a misguided and futile attempt to make the world a better place. 

Allowing "each and every one of us" to keep our own money would do more to advance public service than expanding another government program.

Two separate concepts are being confused by Polis, Obama and many others. The first concept is private philanthropy. The second is government coercion. Hardly from being synonymous, they are opposites.

South Carolina Senator Jim Demint has it right:

“Civil society works because it’s everything that government is not – it’s small, it’s personal, it’s responsive, it’s accountable. Civil society must be protected from anything that makes it more like government."