Lately I´ve spent a good amount of time thinking about how big a role I believe government should play in society. It´s arguably the essential question of politics.

I still don´t have my own answer, to be honest. In trying to answer it, I´ve used the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an example.

In many ways it´s the poster child for big government. The EPA didn´t exist 40 years ago; today it´s a $10 billion operation. Its detractors say it stifles free enterprise with regulations that are unnecessary and difficult to meet.

The EPA´s administrator, Lisa Jackson, wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal last week on the eve of the agency´s 40th anniversary. It of course made a case for the great benefit of the agency, but she argued it in a smart way -- she aimed to refute all the economic arguments against the agency, making the case that it has been good for the economy while protecting the environment in essential ways.

I´m sure EPA critics could try to take apart her arguments in a rebuttal. But in these tough economic times, it´s better to argue worth on an economic basis rather than a moral one.

Are we are better society with the EPA than without it? The idea that the EPA hasn´t improved our quality of living seems absurd. Our drinking water and our food are much freer of toxic additives. The air we breathe is enormously cleaner with what our cars and our factories are now generating.

Are there regulations that really don´t benefit us all that much and really shackle businesses´ ability to stoke the economy? Of course there are. Even Democratic President Obama proposed cutting the EPA´s 2011 budget.

However big or small we think government should be we all agree the federal government needs to provide certain basic protections. Where the line should be drawn will continue to be a matter for complex debate.

But it seems beyond argument that our environment is much better off -- as are our lives -- because the EPA was created in 1970. It´s hard to see the marketplace having looked out so well for such a basic need for society.

Allan Gerlat is editor of Waste & Recycling News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.