Imagine if the government stopped trying to force people to join it. Or imagine if they tied decision making power to how much you pay in taxes. The more you pay, the more say you get. After accepting the idea that government is a
Without the legal monopoly on coercion, this so-called "government" would be just another service provider, like Safeway or Goodyear or K-Mart.
[JWS writes:]
Well isn't that how its supposed to be? [....]
No. The object of government is to limit the freedom of the people it governs. The word is derived from "govern" which means "3. To control the actions or behavior of 4. To keep under control; *restrain*" [American Heritage Dict.]
Well, yeah. And this is a service. When individuals exercise their freedoms, they frequently interfere with other people's freedoms. To resolve this conflict, it is necessary to "control the actions or the behavior of" individuals such that they don't interfere with each other's freedoms. So they enter into a contract with each other under which this is accomplished, but a contract isn't worth the paper its written on unless somebody enforces it, so they hire a policing agency, the government. That agency is providing a useful service.
It would be great if government could be a service provider, or simply feel responsible for those it governs--but then it would not be a government any longer.
I don't agree with that last clause. Cheers, JWS