Government's role in our society

[tylerdurden]

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BCPVP's argument is better when it comes to justice and the police force. Having justice and the police force on sale to those who buy it sucks.

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Would corrupt arbitrators have any credibility? Of course not. Only in a state-dominated monopoly justice system can corruption flourish.

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Plus, to have a true justice system, everyone needs to buy into it and have a say as to the punishments and the crimes, and this is pure government.

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You don't need government for this. Reasonable people can agree that unprovoked force and fraud are undesirable.

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If Murder should be outlawed, and I think we can safely say it should, someone needs to uphold it without getting paid money from an individual to investigate it, for it is in the public good.

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What difference does it make where the money comes from as long as the crime is investigated and prosecuted?

There are more ways to fund private enforcement than just a pay-per-case basis.

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Also, there are many crimes, like extortion and slavery that take place without a complaintant. Without a public police force, these would never be investigated.


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Really? Wow. A slave has no complaint? Come on. This doesn't require much imagination.

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I am saying that without government, we would not have interstate highways right now.

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I agree. We'd have something better, more efficient, not paid for with stolen funds.

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Government can do it more easily because it has the wide range of funds and support necessary to build a road, and will not extort people to drive on these roads.

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Government does it more easily because it uses force. Does that ease excuse the violence?

How would private road owners "extort people to drive"?

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When a single combined effort is more efficient than many individual efforts, government should be used.

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Even if it's coercive? It doesn't matter, because no scenario exists where centrally-planned effort will outperfrom market effort.

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Space exploration is a very interesting case. While you would rather have many individual efforts, space exploration costs a lot of money, and there's no profit at the end of it.

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If there's no profit, why is it worth doing?

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Once the private sector becomes interested enough in space exploration, the government can start pulling out.

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Why should the government be in it before such point where private parties are interested?

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But right now, one of the very few organizations that is interested enough and has the funds to support space exploration and research is the government.

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Again, those funds are ill-gotten. If the benefit is enough to justify the theft of the funds, surely a private party could pursue it profitably without government intervention.