Providing public goods is the only legitimate reason we have governments.
In reality, we have governments for lots of reasons, most of them illegitimate:
When it comes to government, if you aren’t involved in the provision of actual public goods, you are involved in extortion. It may be legal. It may have the blessing of the mayor, the city council, and your union representative, but it’s still extortion. And you should be ashamed of yourself. If your only purpose is getting in the way until somebody hands you money, then you are part of a protection racket. And you might want to think about going into a more honorable line of work.
Pretty much nails it.
However very farmer knows that the ticks do not drop off on their own.
While there is blood, these feast.
Government needs to be seen as theatre.
It is a morality play put on for the fools and bandits born into each generation .
Most of us do not need to be told the golden rule, do unto other as you wish them to treat you.
No free lunch.
However the minimal government civilization requires still needs persons to perform the roles, i.e. enforce the law,do it fairly and stand guard against external fools and bandits.
Now politicians are all actors.
They have begged us for the opportunity to play their roles.
They appoint the bit actors who staff the bureaus.
Well the current actors all swore oaths, that they would perform these roles to the best of their ability.
Bring rotten fruit and pitchforks to the next showing.
We are paying for this show, we better get some actors who can perform their role as scripted.
With full blown kleptocracy in force, blatant abuse of both the word and spirit of our laws is the norm.
The beast will not starve itself.
Time for the audience to riot.
In the UK you pay a surcharge called a council tax if you do not pay it you will be jailed so basically you pay this to your county council to stop yourself going to prison.
We will soon be all as one. All Government agents of the World for the World Government. It will be our duty to keep the World Government safe from others who still do not understand the world’s view and do not have any facebook friends or worse, no facebook at all.
Yes we can!
But who will protect us from the asteroid?
“Government is just another word for the things we choose to do to
gethereach other.”FTFY.
I have been thinking about this paradise of parasites for some years now, I had hoped the reform our institutions concept would take off under the Reform/Cons Alliance.
Ha, we did not even get the basics restated, never mind scrapping of anti-civilization legislation.
Just a pause, a little less theft than what went before and what is too start tomorrow.
What we do not produce cannot be stolen.
This does not make for a functioning civil society.
Seems highly unlikely that government can reform itself, or that the bureaus would even see their predation as a problem.
They mean well and they are here to help you, just as long as they do not have to work and you pay for everything.
But you need their help, without them you might have to spend your income as you see fit and devote your efforts to things you value.
Civilization is a shared illusion, when it fails tribalism takes over.
The blind worms gnawing at the foundations of our civilization have done their best, the basics are all in doubt.
The illusion totters and fades away, why should I contribute disproportionally to a society that will not help itself?
Local solutions are all that is left, starve the beast.
Bottom line, if my home is not my property,if the return on my labour is to be stolen at source and there is no relief insight……..Why bother?
Harper was the best last hope before going Galt, he and we failed, so is it every man for himself?
However under every strip[e of government in Canada there is one career choice that is always rewarded,
Crime.
Works great, if you are successful you pay very little tax.
If unsuccessful you are rewarded with 3 squares a day, housing, healthcare,dentistry and 24/7 assistance.
Best pension plan in Country.
Providing public goods is the only legitimate reason we have governments.
The notion of “public good” is the wrong way to look at the issue. The purpose of government is to protect individual rights, by way of police, military and courts. Everything else can and should be done by private interests. That doesn’t mean the transition will be easy and it certainly would not happen overnight, but that’s the principle.
And there certainly isn’t any activity that we “choose to do together” That’s a leftist cliché, which presumably is why it was chosen for the title of this thread that tears holes in it.
The threat of prison is one of the options for enforcement tools for all taxes.