Ed wrote:

> Your terms are tripping over themselves. A state or nation necessitates a
> government in order to be defined as a state or a nation. Can a group of
> people function on their own without being governed? I believe so.

126 or 270 million of them?

> Unfortunately, government is darwinian. Take one away and another one pops
> up. Put two people together and one will want to tell the other what to do.

And it just so happens that democracy for the U.S. is better than simply
letting the strongest or most determined ambitious or greedy one, take over.

> > > A perfect world would have no politicians.
> >
> > What perfect world are you referring to? EdWorld?
>
> ThoreauWorld might be a better word, but I can live with EdWorld.

Are you a self sufficient farmer able to produce all you need for yourself?
What form of currency or trade and barter are used in EdWorld to get other
things you need, such as medical care? How are you organized to build highways,
automobiles and aircraft?

> What benefits does government (I assume we're talking about Japan here. I
> certainly derive no benefits from the American government) provide for me?

How convenient you speak only in the present tense, and you are ignorant even
then. Have you given up your passport yet? Unless you lived as a hermit while
in the US, you most certainly derived its benefits, perhaps without even paying
any taxes, as would be true of students attending public school.

> Remember, cool plumbers who wear plastic white loafers have done plumbing
> without having a member of the government hold their ladders before now.

The government provided the system for your plumber to learn and practice his
trade, unless he learned everything off his master whom he lived off of, and
you pay him in labor or Ed Credits.

> > Do government officials, employees, or contractors, as people, produce
> > anything?
>
> If the subject is government, then let's talk about government. Contractors
> and employees do not necessitate a government for them to be considered
> contractors and employees.
>
> > In your perfect world where people can be trusted to look after
> themselves, who
> > builds the national highway system and how is it paid for?
>
> "national" highway system? How is it paid for? Jeeez!!!! Don't you know your
> own country's history? Railroads, toll roads, gold, silver, coin of the
> realm, clam shells, pecks of pickled peppers... hint, hint, hint.

And who validates that "coin of the realm" in the community, state or nation,
for it to hold any value?

> As I stated previously, if you precisely and correctly define your terms,
> you wouldn't be making all of these errors. A government does not build
> highway systems, nor do they build cars and sell cigarettes. Governments
> merely regulate them.

And that government is necessary, and needs to be paid for.