What is the purpose of government and why do we need it?

Question

I know this may sound like a stupid question, but I just wanna hear some of your opinions.

Answer 1

National defense, infrastructure, justice system, education system, some sort of social security system.  Those are the important things because the free market economy will not adequately provide for them.  

Answer 2

this one is totally bassackwards, going against everything it was designed to do. And the people just can't get over the fact that maybe it's not entirely the other party's fault.

Answer 3

The only legitimate purpose for government is to prevent one person from violating the rights of others, or to punish them for doing so.

In my mind, there are very few legitimate rights, as opposed to those things that many citizens now feel are rights, such as healthcare, employment, etc.

You most definitely have a right to bear arms, to own private property(there is a host of laws designed to restrict this right in every state and nation in the world), and to speak or express yourself freely.

Answer 4

A government is "the organization, that is the governing authority of a political unit "the ruling power in a political society and the apparatus through which a governing body functions and exercises authority.  Government, with the authority to make laws, to adjudicate disputes, and to issue administrative decisions, and with a monopoly of authorized force where it fails to persuade, is an indispensable means, proximately, to the peace of communal life. A compulsory territorial monopolist of protection and jurisdiction equipped with the power to tax without unanimous consent  Statist theorists maintain that the necessity of government derives from the fact that the people need to live in communities, yet personal autonomy must be constrained in these communities.