I think the purpose of government is for a population to accomplish its mutually agreed-upon goals without every citizen having to accomplish those goals for him- or herself. Some examples: we have a police force so we don’t need to have vigilante mobs. We have a post office so we don’t need to deliver our own mail across the entire nation. We have a fire department so we don’t have to put out our own fires.

In return for the services we agree on, we pay a fee.

We just don’t all agree on what the services and what the fees should be.

I personally think it’s sad we don’t all agree on single-payer health care. We agree on paying taxes to save a house from fire but not a body from cancer? Why do we care more about our property than about ourselves?

Author: Robert Peate