What can governments do that a regular person cannot?

[Elwar]

A fun thread to list all of the things that governments can do but regular people cannot. Such as:

Government can take your money by force (taxation).
Government can kidnap people and put them in a cage (arrest and detain).
Government can decide what you can and cannot eat/drink/smoke (food bans, alcohol laws, drug laws)
Government can force you to inject chemicals into your body (vaccination laws)
Government can inject chemicals into your body to kill you (death penalty)
Government can balance their budgets by printing more money (Federal Reserve)


Can you think of any others?

[keystroke]

A fun thread to list all of the things that governments can do but regular people cannot. Such as:

Government can take your money by force (taxation).
Government can kidnap people and put them in a cage (arrest and detain).
Government can decide what you can and cannot eat/drink/smoke (food bans, alcohol laws, drug laws)
Government can force you to inject chemicals into your body (vaccination laws)
Government can inject chemicals into your body to kill you (death penalty)
Government can balance their budgets by printing more money (Federal Reserve)


Can you think of any others?

Briefly cause a portion of the Earth to heat to tens of millions of degrees vaporizing uncountable numbers of people at once.
Watch everything you do, read all your private correspondence, and listen to your private communications.
Manipulate the entire society which lives around you thus limiting the abilities of your fellow humans.
Gas millions to death.

But we have to give someone the ability to do the above things otherwise who would build the roads?!

[MelodyRowell]

They can provide national defense.
The government can can maintain roads and bridges
The government can prevent companies from selling potentially deadly food that people assume is safe to consume

While I do believe that big government is very bad, it does have it's place in certain parts of the country.

[TheButterZone]

What CAN governments do? Anything humanly possible.

What DO governments do? Not provide national defense, not maintain roads and bridges, not prevent companies from selling potentially deadly food that people assume is safe to consume, not respect all human rights, etc.

[Elwar]

They can provide national defense.
The government can can maintain roads and bridges
The government can prevent companies from selling potentially deadly food that people assume is safe to consume

Those are all things that people can also do.

[HeroCat]

Government people can travel to important meetings like G20 in Australia, regular person can no do that, also can make some TV shows before elections and so on  But there are also negative side of that - if you are public person 

[BADecker]

Wrong question. Question should be, "What can some governments do that others cannot do?" Why? Because everyone is a government for and to himself/herself.

Consider. If you were marooned alone on a deserted island, and the island had plenty of food and fresh water, who would be your government? Wouldn't it be you? It would be your governing of yourself that would cause you to go out and find the food and water. It would be your governing of yourself that tested ways to build shelter, and then use the methods that worked.

All government is a state of mind. When the government is complex - several people working with the same government - usually the government consists of writing down the rules of government. This is because people forget. People change their minds. Written government maintains a reasonable stable state of mind among the people of the government.

In the United Kingdom, government is based first in the common law of the people. It goes all the way back to the Magna Carta, and certain maxims of law. These have stood strong for hundreds of years, and are strong today for use by the people. The only reason formal government people can get away with harming regular, common people is, the common people have forgotten the common law and Queen's Bench... which are there, but are simply seldom used.

Canada, other countries that have received their independence from Brittain, and the British protectorates, contain this common law. Some of these have restated the common law of the people in their constitutions in such ways that they still use Queen's Bench, but where there is a direct reaffirmation of the basic common laws - Magna Carta essence, and maxims.

In the United States, Queen's Bench was completely dropped. The common law of the people is assumed and presumed in the way that the government was set up. Every person who was born within the borders of the Untied States of America or one of its territories, has the right to use the common law of the people. However, few people use it as such.

In order to take away the power of the people, the U.S. government has adopted what they call common law into their statute law. Don't be deceived. This is not the common law of the people. Rather, it is simply case law, designed to be used with 14th Amendment citizens, which thing the People are not. Even the juries of the land are not common law of the people juries. Why not? They are made up (except under rare occasions) of 14th Amendment citizens.

In America, you are allowed a jury of your peers when you are accused. If you are not a citizen, but rather one of the people domiciled on the land, try finding a jury that is not made up of people who say that they are citizens. These days it is virtually impossible. Since you are guaranteed a jury of your peers, case dismissed because they can't find anyone who will admit to not being a citizen, yet is domiciled here (in the States) at the same time.

http://1215.org/

http://www.broadmind.org/

http://www.unkommonlaw.co.uk/

http://www.myprivateaudio.com/Karl-Lentz.html

[H.W.Z]

Gov can issue official documents,such as ID, passport etc , individual cant.

[Elwar]

All government is a state of mind. When the government is complex - several people working with the same government - usually the government consists of writing down the rules of government. This is because people forget. People change their minds. Written government maintains a reasonable stable state of mind among the people of the government.

I agree, but it goes from people working together to people giving power to this "entity" called the government which they allow to control their lives. Powers that they do not allow other people to have, such as kidnapping, theft, murder, etc..

In the United Kingdom, government is based first in the common law of the people. It goes all the way back to the Magna Carta, and certain maxims of law.

We do not need things such as the Magna Carta (which was signed under duress) to give us freedom. To do so only gives such governments more credibility. We are born free, not even with select inherent rights...we are born with all rights to freedom. No government is needed to protect those rights, that responsibility falls upon you. If your best option is to compromise with the most powerful entity of the time because you cannot compete, then that is something you have to do. But do not fool yourself into believing that you have some rights under that powerful entity just because it was written down once and they promised to stick to it. The fact remains that they have more power than you and that is all that truly matters.