What would an appropriate revenue source be? I don't really think generating revenue should be the focus of the government as much as facilitating the growth of private industry through smart regulation, and then taxing them. The government is not a company. It shouldn't generally compete with private industry where it can be avoided. It's a meta organization that should focus on gluing the country together. It represents the people; the people should fund it; and it should support the people in doing so. It is an ancient model, and being a facilitator of private growth is not really all that passive.

And yet it overspends on those goals and can’t do them effectively

None of the ideology matters if it can’t budget and where we are now, no taxation will fix its budget unless it resorts to full on expropriation of property

I'm skeptical that no level of taxation can support the government. Bill Clinton was able to balance the budget, and that wasn't so long ago.

The government collects trillions of dollars a year in taxes as it is. A significant percentage increase to the level of taxation against top earners would make a huge difference, and it is difficult to fathom what operation the government could run to remotely approach that level of increased revenue generation. What do you have in mind?

It would have to both increase its revenue sources and decrease its spending

Something is going to have to get nationalized, big bad word oh noes

Ha. I like you.

You see nationalization of industry as a pathway to revenue growth? I guess it makes sense, but somehow I always think about industries like healthcare being nationalized as a means of providing service, which is likely to cost the government more money

What industry would be profitable and appropriate for nationalization?