The role of government in one sentence.

[muzzled dogg]

At the most, protect life, liberty, and property

 

[evilfunnystuff]

The role of government is to facilitate the subjugation of one group of people to another.

 

[Keith and stuff]

At the most, protect life, liberty, and property

I agree

"...the maximum role of government is the protection of life, liberty, and property."
http://freestateproject.org/org/mission

 

[Danan]

What government is, explained to a child:

http://vimeo.com/23912176


What government should be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy9FRli7ODg

 

[row333au]

The Government is the collective ownership of all the public citizens whose sole purpose is to administer the countries resources, - "and that government of the people, by the people, for the people" - thus first and foremost concern will be the democratic consensus of a republic conceived in Liberty under a constitutional order dedicated to protect and serve individual and sovereignty rights of its citizens (the public or 'the people') above all others, as answerable to all anti-tyranny, anti-corruption, of moral and ethics with fairness and equality to all created life.

 

[VanBummel]

"Not much."

 

[RickyJ]

To serve and protect the people.

But today it is more like: To screw and rape the people.

 

[mport1]

A criminal gang who illegitimately claims the ability to legally initiate force against individuals in a given geographic region. Or more succinctly, the most successful criminal gang in a given area.

 

[Pauling]

Government is a gun, pointed at your head.

 

[mad cow]

That to secure these Rights...

 

[patriot2008]

The role of government is to become a monster. Wasn't it said early on that it is like a necessary beast that needs to be chained, contained and beaten back, or abolished every so often?

 

[Lothario]

Government is a place bad men go to control you, and they've tricked all your friends into thinking we need them.

 

[Knightskye]

I don't think many of the people who volunteered explanations, read the original post that asked for an explanation that a child would understand.

 

[ryanmkeisling]

I don't want to be governed.

 

[noneedtoaggress]

"This is the function that the liberal doctrine assigns to the state: the protection of property, liberty, and peace." - Ludwig von Mises

Mises also said:

If it were in any way possible to grant this right of self-determination to every individual person, it would have to be done.

 

[noneedtoaggress]

Is the purpose of government to protect liberty? I wonder because Ron always says that.

He also says this:

Our standards of living are made possible by the blessed institution of liberty. When liberty is under attack, everything we hold dear is under attack. Governments, by their very nature, notoriously compete with liberty — even when the stated purpose for establishing a particular government is to protect liberty.

And yet even among the friends of liberty, many people are deceived into believing that government can make them safe from all harm, provide fairly distributed economic security, and improve individual moral behavior. If the government is granted a monopoly on the use of force to achieve these goals, history shows that that power is always abused. Every single time.

From the intro to Liberty Defined

 

[awake]

The government's sole purpose is to protect my natural right to do as I please so long as I do not injure or damage the person or property of others.


In practice, government is being used solely to injure and damage the persons and property of others. To measure what government does vs. what it was tasked to do is to acknowledge absolute failure of monopoly government. In light of this, our clear path is market provided governance.

Private property rights is to liberty what oxygen is to the human body.

 

[mrsat_98]

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

 

[LibertyRevolution]

The proper role of government is to protect the rights of the individual.

 

[BuddyRey]

Government is a problem constantly posing as its own solution.