In both “Self-reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government” we see how little they want the government involved. In “Self-reliance”, Emerson writes a lot about not depending on others for help, like the government, and how he is very much against giving to men that he is not connected with, via family or a friendship. Thoreau has some similar views, as he states in the beginning of his text, “That government is best which governs least;” (Thoreau, 964). Both Emerson and Thoreau seem to take the libertarian side of government, both would probably be very displeased with today’s government. With the hundreds of government aid programs that are so easily taken advantage of, I think it is safe to say
