why do we need governments?

Question

are humans too sick to live without authority?

Answer 1

To provide for general protection. If there were no governments, there would be some militant groups that would rise up and seize control of the populous.

Answer 2

well this depends on how you view human nature. are humans born good or bad? According to Karl Marx, humans are born good in nature but its due to the "chains of oppression" created by the employer's exploitation that make them selfish. So he proposed that if true communism was implemented, humans would eventually lose the chains and government would slowly wither away. I somewhat believe Karl Marx, and for those that say "communism doesn't work because look at China and the USSR." Well, if you guys actually went to school, you would know that Marx said communism is most likely to succeed in highly industrialized areas such as Britain or the United States. And when China and Russia became communist states they were not industrialized at all and depended on agriculture.
So government? I dont think we need it, we need to destroy power though...

Answer 3

Government is a necessary evil. You may choose whether to place the emphasis on "necessary" or "evil".

Suffice to say that government, as practiced in America, is a far cry from the benign government envisioned by the Founding Fathers. The problem is that we have become (in practice) a "democracy" - which is a synonym for "mob rule". America was founded as a Democratic Republic - and only males with a certain level of assets (i.e. successful men) we allowed to vote. If you THINK about it, this makes perfect sense. Who would want an UNsuccessful man to make decisions regarding the course of government?

By opening voting to women (who are naturally more risk-averse, and inclined to vote themselves all sorts of government goodies) and bums (anyone who takes more out of the system than they put in), we have ensured that our government will fail. Rome fell when the people discovered they could vote themselves, "Bread and Circuses" - and we are doing the same... only we call it "Welfare" and "International Advernturism".

Having looked long and hard at the numbers, I do not believe we have more than 25 years before complete economic collapse. The single person most to blame for this is probably Abraham Lincoln (with assistance from FDR and Johnson). The single group most culpable is: Women.

Read "The Real Lincoln" and see the study by John Lott if you don't believe me.

Answer 4

When I was in undergrad they taught us that governments exist for three reasons:

1. Control externalities;
2. Distribute brudens evenly accross a populace;
3. Distribute public resources.

Insipid that.

Western society has made us quite "sick." A communist system would undoubtedly solve the problem, however there is much that would need to be done between now and then,

Answer 5

um, yes.

seriosuly, dont be ridiculous. Government is an offical representation of an organized will of the people, at least in this country. Of course its not perfect, but the world is a better place for far more people than it was even 200 years ago. So we all must be doing something right.

Answer 6

Because we are all 'civilized' animals. Without some sort of control, we will naturally revert to our caveperson state. We have trained ourselves to act certain ways.

Clearly, the boards of Yahoo answers showcase why we need governments. :-)

Answer 7

Government is needed in a society so that there will be order wherein leaders are elected to implement the rules to avoid anarchy.

Answer 8

We do need someone to manage and organise in a proper manner.
Will be quite messy at own whims and fancy in "Planet of Apes" being overlook on planet earth.

Answer 9

we dont! They need us, our labor, our sacrifise... the 'reality' is, if one examines the impact of government on civilisation (the 2 are in fact antithetical) one will conclude war and misery are traced to government

Answer 10

previous both are true