Knowledge check: If a government had only 2 functions,what would they be?

[Akka]

I would say the second is diplomacy. As long as there are other Governments. The free nation would need to be represented towards them through a single entity.

This is a good point, but what purpose would a diplomat serve? I mean, foreign policy could be summed up in a press release: "We'll trade with anyone who comes in peace, and woe betide any who come in war."

Hm, if you put it that way, it sounds like a job a answering machine could do:

Thanks for your call, a government representative is currently not available.

If you want to trade press 1
If you want to declare war press 2
If you want to wait until a representative is available press 3 we have 12580 Hours of jingle music available to keep you entertained while you wait.

[Rockford]

I think division of powers is a very important concept that has to be protected by all means.

[Theraty]

1. Ensure all necessary resources (food, water, shelter, etc) for all publlic are available
2. Ensure necessary services ( hospital, police, etc) for all public are available

[Theraty]

I think division of powers is a very important concept that has to be protected by all means.

Or else a proper open integration into society where no information is hidden and the public are included in all decision making processes.

[myrkul]

I would say the second is diplomacy. As long as there are other Governments. The free nation would need to be represented towards them through a single entity.

This is a good point, but what purpose would a diplomat serve? I mean, foreign policy could be summed up in a press release: "We'll trade with anyone who comes in peace, and woe betide any who come in war."

Hm, if you put it that way, it sounds like a job a answering machine could do:

Thanks for your call, a government representative is currently not available.

If you want to trade press 1
If you want to declare war press 2
If you want to wait until a representative is available press 3 we have 12580 Hours of jingle music available to keep you entertained while you wait.

*1*
Thank you for choosing Trade. Just bring your shipment into one of our conveniently located ports, and our representatives will be glad to assist you.

*2*
We're sorry to hear that you've decided to declare war on us. Please record a message after the beep, which will be broadcast to all our militias. Please be advised that some of them do have rather advanced weaponry. *BEEP*

*3*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLDKnWi2hNA

 

[Stampbit]

1. Tax
2. Death

[townf]

1. Remove the revenue raising sectors of the economy to Asia             
2. Borrow money at an exponential rate

[Pzi4nk]

The correct answer is:
1. National defense
2. Create/enforce laws

I looked it up on Google.

[townf]

1. Tell the people what they are scared of
2. Tell the people what kind of food they can eat

[bbulker]

1. Gain legal ownership over everything in the universe.
2. Play God.

[ManBearPig]

First of all, there is technically a "right"answer. That is, according to a highly-knowledgeable  economist (Oxford/Cambridge). I wish I remembered his name, I REALLY do. He said he was an all-out libertarian, bordering on anarchist (he lol'd). I am also a Libertarian (maybe not as fanatic as him, but I am one) so I liked listening to him.

One thing he said has been on my mind for close to a week now. He said that we as a nation would thrive and be most free if our government only had 2 functions. The invisible hand, he said would take care of the rest.

So what do you guys think? I don't think he's crazy. Either way, post what you think those 2 functions are and later I'll reveal the answer (again, according to him).

Lets have a FUN (no computer screen drama) debate over politics and whatever else this brings up!

To protect and serve.

[Pzi4nk]

1. Tell the people what they are scared of
2. Tell the people what kind of food they can eat

+1

I like this answer because it's both funny and true.

[ChicagoBob]

1. Taking out the garbage and related community services including roads & bridges, power grid, schools - debatable whether this extends to keeping the economy on a robust growth path, mainly because of the additional powers needed for that, and the potential for abuse of those powers.

2. Enforcing rules.  Internally stopping people from theft, assault, etc.  Externally stopping threats from other governments, although if ALL governments had only 2 functions and stayed limited to them, the external issues would be smaller.

[halfawake]

If I had to pick only two functions for the government to do, I'd pick protection for both.

1) Police protection from each other: gangs, etc.
2) Protection of the environment. 

People love to talk about market forces solving all problems, but protecting the environment is something that market forces do a very poor job at protecting.  See global warming on a global scale, or overfishing, it's the economic principle of externalities - also referred to as "the tragedy of the commons".

[myrkul]

People love to talk about market forces solving all problems, but protecting the environment is something that market forces do a very poor job at protecting.  See global warming on a global scale, or overfishing, it's the economic principle of externalities - also referred to as "the tragedy of the commons".

You know how to fix the tragedy of the commons, right?

[Pzi4nk]

People love to talk about market forces solving all problems, but protecting the environment is something that market forces do a very poor job at protecting.  See global warming on a global scale, or overfishing, it's the economic principle of externalities - also referred to as "the tragedy of the commons".

You know how to fix the tragedy of the commons, right?

ha ha. Exactly! Well said.

[halfawake]

People love to talk about market forces solving all problems, but protecting the environment is something that market forces do a very poor job at protecting.  See global warming on a global scale, or overfishing, it's the economic principle of externalities - also referred to as "the tragedy of the commons".

You know how to fix the tragedy of the commons, right?

Well, my memory of economics tells me that the way of fixing the tragedy of the commons would be to build the externalities into the price of whatever is being sold.  In other words, if you were to use gasoline as an example, put a large tax on it to account for the fact that it contributes to global warming.  Over the long run, this will result in a situation where people will drive less, and use smaller cars, thus use less gas. 

So, in this case, the solution is government intervention.  The same idea would apply for many other cases of tragedy of the commons, ie: some species is being overfished?  Declare an area off limits for fishing for a set period of time.  So on and so forth.  I like minimalism in government, but environmental protections like these are regulations that I fully support.

[Pzi4nk]

People love to talk about market forces solving all problems, but protecting the environment is something that market forces do a very poor job at protecting.  See global warming on a global scale, or overfishing, it's the economic principle of externalities - also referred to as "the tragedy of the commons".

You know how to fix the tragedy of the commons, right?

Well, my memory of economics tells me that the way of fixing the tragedy of the commons would be to build the externalities into the price of whatever is being sold.  In other words, if you were to use gasoline as an example, put a large tax on it to account for the fact that it contributes to global warming.  Over the long run, this will result in a situation where people will drive less, and use smaller cars, thus use less gas. 

So, in this case, the solution is government intervention.  The same idea would apply for many other cases of tragedy of the commons, ie: some species is being overfished?  Declare an area off limits for fishing for a set period of time.  So on and so forth.  I like minimalism in government, but environmental protections like these are regulations that I fully support.

That's a common approach, halfawake, but not the textbook solution. The simple sollution to a "tragedy of the commons" is to privatize the common. That is, give it to someone. This will result in the resource being allocated to its most efficient use (see Coase Theorem).

[drawingthesun]

Stop people using Bitcoins......

[agentbluescreen]

1: Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution without any reservation nor purpose of evasion.

2: To hear and vet all proposals to make, repeal, amend and enforce valid laws and declarations and to provide for the best conduct of the duties that they require.