Khalid asked:

Do we need a government?

It seems to me like we don't really have to ask this question. Whether we need it or not, we will still
get one. it is in our nature.

============

People feel a need for a government — I include dictatorships here — because the alternative is
anarchy and the lack of organization implied would be difficult to accept in an advanced culture.

A government is also able to maintain relations with other states, so that in advanced cultures we are
able to take advantage of cheap workforces, goods and raw materials from less developed countries.
This seems to be becoming a global goal which the international anarchist movement is trying to put
an end to. It is this goal, rather the concept of a government, which is wrong.

The role of a government is to maintain a legal system, impose taxes and distribute wealth in a way
the people think is just.

I think is Locke's view. Locke thought that people want a government because of the inconveniences
of a state of nature which is lawless. It can be argued against this that the impositions and restrictions
maintained by government are not actually preferable to a lawless state of nature, but unless we are
able to live in small self-sufficient communities — which we do not seem to want to do — then
government is necessary.

Rachel Browne