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Puppyroach on 19 October 2017
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Locknuts said:
Puppyroach said:

No, government is the extension of the people, so of course they are not a necessary evil. The cases you name are not cases where the government is elected by the people, but taken over by (in most cases) a military force. Even in Nazi Germany, the party that took the government hostage did so while it only had the support of about a third of the country.

If the people treat the government as their tool, where we set the standards through our elected officials, then government is generally a good thing. There are a lot of cases of where government run entities are inefficient, but the same can be sad if privately run entities aswell. The difference is that you and me can affect the government run entities while we have no say in how private alternatives set up their business model. A great example is health care where the privately run model of the US is highly ineffective and costs people way more than government run alternatives in other countries. 

No, the military is part of the government. They can't be taken over by a 'military force' unless that force exists in the first place. In the cases I talked about the military was already in place. Given the power to create a military and a monopoly on military weapons, the potential for corruption is immense. They need to be kept in check at all times so that they don't become tyranical. 

The difference between private sector inefficiency and government inefficiency is that the poorly run private company fails, but the poorly run government entity keeps tapping into tax payer money, often giving the illusion of success. The bigger the government, the more tax payer money they bleed.

Ofcourse the military can be taken over by another military force, I thought that would be quite obvious =). And the cases you are talkning about is not cases where the people have elected to have a dictatorial leader, therefore it is a fallacy that it would be some inheerent "evil" with the concept of government. If I drive a car, and delibirately run someone else over, you don´t blame the car, but rather the driver. And ofcourse there is great potential for corruption, which once again does not mean that the concept of government is a necessary evil in itself. It is the people we elect that is the problem in those cases.

Once again we have the example of the US health care system, where insurance companies receive enormous amounts of money from the people, while government led alternatives in other countries is muche less costly. Privately run entities are best and most effective for some markets, while government run entities are best and most effective for other markets. Also, if the government isn´t managing a department or specific matter as good as we citizens like, it is our job to elect officials that can rectify the situation. We don´t have that influence in private companies (an influence we also shouldn´t have).