Government - Becoming An Unnecessary Evil?
What Are We Paying For?
Governments are not often described as a "Protection Racket" but essentially that's what they are. In return for imposing "law and order" and defending the realm against outside agression, we allow the government to extort money from us in the form of taxes etc. The exact form of the government may vary and regimes can range from the benign (e.g. the original US Republic) to the outright tyrannical, with most somewhere in between.
What happens, however, when governments don't fulfill their end of the bargain? I raise this issue because of two items I saw over the weekend.
Firstly, in the UK there has been renewed outrage over the absurd situation where citizens find themselves being prosecuted as result of defending themselves against criminals. The "Daily Telegraph" (see here) comments:
"There is no more fundamental right than that of individuals to protect themselves, their families and their homes from criminals who break in and attempt to steal their property. It is the most basic one which government exists to protect - and when it fails to protect it, government neglects its most elementary duty."
In the UK, the crime situation has deteriorated in recent years largely as a consequence of the law seeming to be more concerned with the "rights" of criminals rather than ordinary ctizens combined with ineffectual policing (which is linked to the first point).
Secondly, an opinion piece in this weekend's "Australian Financial Review" revisits the topic of crumbling basic infrastructure. I've commented before how Sydney is facing not only a water shortage but also possible problems with electricity.
Items such as these raise the question "What are paying for?" It's a topic that is considered at length in "The Sovereign Individual", a book I have mentioned previously. In essence, if governments cannot or will not meet the basic requirements of their citizens, then increasingly they will lose support and legitimacy in the eyes of their citizens. At it's extreme, this leads to the phenomenon of "failed states" and other internal strife.
Stormy times lie ahead and governments would do well to remember their end of the bargain.
Governments are not often described as a "Protection Racket" but essentially that's what they are. In return for imposing "law and order" and defending the realm against outside agression, we allow the government to extort money from us in the form of taxes etc. The exact form of the government may vary and regimes can range from the benign (e.g. the original US Republic) to the outright tyrannical, with most somewhere in between.
What happens, however, when governments don't fulfill their end of the bargain? I raise this issue because of two items I saw over the weekend.
Firstly, in the UK there has been renewed outrage over the absurd situation where citizens find themselves being prosecuted as result of defending themselves against criminals. The "Daily Telegraph" (see here) comments:
"There is no more fundamental right than that of individuals to protect themselves, their families and their homes from criminals who break in and attempt to steal their property. It is the most basic one which government exists to protect - and when it fails to protect it, government neglects its most elementary duty."
In the UK, the crime situation has deteriorated in recent years largely as a consequence of the law seeming to be more concerned with the "rights" of criminals rather than ordinary ctizens combined with ineffectual policing (which is linked to the first point).
Secondly, an opinion piece in this weekend's "Australian Financial Review" revisits the topic of crumbling basic infrastructure. I've commented before how Sydney is facing not only a water shortage but also possible problems with electricity.
Items such as these raise the question "What are paying for?" It's a topic that is considered at length in "The Sovereign Individual", a book I have mentioned previously. In essence, if governments cannot or will not meet the basic requirements of their citizens, then increasingly they will lose support and legitimacy in the eyes of their citizens. At it's extreme, this leads to the phenomenon of "failed states" and other internal strife.
Stormy times lie ahead and governments would do well to remember their end of the bargain.
posted by Kevin Francis at
8:31 pm
