He states that it has not pushed forward anything and instead the people have accomplished everything the government claims to have done such as keep the country free, settle the West, and educate. He claims that the government only holds back the people from accomplishing such things. He says that if trade and commerce were not so flexible, then the economy would flounder due to the problems that he says legislators put in its way. However, in the real world it is clearly more practical to have a better government than no government at all. Thoreau realizes this and says, "Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it." He explains that when power is in the hands of the people the majority rules even though they may not always be in the right or fair. They rule simply because they are the strongest. He states that a government in which the majority is in power in all cases cannot be based on justice. He believes men should follow their conscience first, rather than be lead by what the government thinks is right. "The only obligation which I have a right to assume," he writes, "is to do at any time what I think right." Thoreau continues by saying that a man should not devote himself to erasing what is wrong in the world, but rather wash his hands of it so as not to support it. He moves on to show that many people are hypocrites in that they claim to do what is right, but still support the wrong indirectly. He uses the example of a man who claims that he would not fight in the Mexican war and yet still pays taxes to the government which is fighting that very war. Every citizen is guilty of this because the government asks for him or her to pay taxes. Thoreau then concludes that perhaps this injustice is a natural part of the government machine and that perhaps in time the machine will wear out.