What is a government good for?

[Parodite]

That it does what most people want it to do.

What if most people want bad things?

One may hope they learn from their mistakes.

[Parodite]

Protecting individual rights and that's it.

Rights come with obligations?

What are your obligations to ibs or myself?

Not taking away your rights? Making it hard or impossible for you to enjoy and use them?

[Mr. Perfect]

That it does what most people want it to do.

What if most people want bad things?

One may hope they learn from their mistakes.

And if they don't?

[Mr. Perfect]

Protecting individual rights and that's it.

Rights come with obligations?

What are your obligations to ibs or myself?

Not taking away your rights? Making it hard or impossible for you to enjoy and use them?

Sounds good. I thought you meant something else.

[Parodite]

That it does what most people want it to do.

What if most people want bad things?

One may hope they learn from their mistakes.

And if they don't?

Pray Murphy to intervene? Democracy is also the right to do stupid things.

[Mr. Perfect]

I don't think so. This is why I am against democracy and for liberty based Constitutional Republics. My life is my life, each moment is irreplaceable and I shouldn't have to live through whatever oppressive mania the mob is currently working through toward Dr Phil Oprah style teachable moments.

I want my rights set in stone and inviolable, and democracy as you describe it cannot deliver that.

[Parodite]

I don't think so. This is why I am against democracy and for liberty based Constitutional Republics. My life is my life, each moment is irreplaceable and I shouldn't have to live through whatever oppressive mania the mob is currently working through toward Dr Phil Oprah style teachable moments.

I want my rights set in stone and inviolable, and democracy as you describe it cannot deliver that.

Strongly relate to that. Dilemma: I had this Grizzly Adams dream when I was young. Absolute freedom. And look at me now... living another life in another wilderness with a freedom that however does not feed my instinctive/organic needs of freedom.

[Aferim]

Well, the modern states co-evolved with modern societies and the two are so closely meshed together that it is impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.

What are the legitimate roles of government:
Create an environment in which individuals and associations of individuals can interact in a way that is predictable for all parties.
a part of which is the duty to:
Protect the members of the commonwealth from external aggression and from internal rule-breakers.
In order to do so there must be a set of rules of the game, so a state must have a way to:
Aggregate preferences and aggregate power to produce rules of the game.

Now, how far does government reach into individual lives? I don't think there's a should here. Some levels of intervention work, others fail. Furthermore, what can work in Sweden today might not work in Sweden tomorrow, and probably won't work in South Africa today either.