What would have to happen to eliminate government completely? Easy. People would have to have complete integrity and take full responsibility for their lives. Where in the entire world do we have a society of people like that? There would have to be a human transformation so large it would dwarf the Industrial Revolution and the Renaissance.  

People are lazy, greedy, liars, cheaters, etc. And we've all been some combination of those things at some point in our lives. But we're also kind, generous, loving, caring, compassionate and philanthropic and we've all been some combination of those things as well. The human experience is a whole gamut of ways of being and throughout our lives we are often choosing between the selfish and the altruistic. And the choices we make depend mostly on how the world occurs to us. If the world occurs as an every man for himself, winner take all, where's my piece of the pie kinda place, we make selfish choices. If it occurs as everyone doing their best despite their flaws kinda place, we tend to be more altruistic. With our current leadership it seems the former is more prevalent these days. 

We've been growing and evolving since we climbed out of the water (or walked thru the Garden of Eden if that's your view). Each of us gets to experience a miniscule window of that process and though it feels like a long time, it's just a blip in our overall evolution. 240 years seems like a long time for this experiment in government. And now we feel like we're failing that experiment and with good reason. But are we really? Sometimes we have to go through some dark times to get to the light on the other side. Human transformation doesn't typically come when we're fat and happy.

We were given the keys to the kingdom with our Constitution but we've squandered it. And most of us don't even know that. Maybe we weren't ready for it. Now what? Will we transform as a society and get back to the basic minimal set of rules for governing our society? Or will we blindly continue down the rabbit hole and go back to the comforatable tyranny and let others decide our fate?

For me it begins with human transformation. Until we can begin to accept that we are the creators of our lives and have full responsibility for how it is, we will never let go of the government teet. I'm not living my life trying to change government, I'm working on transforming the governed.

And I could be wrong. 

Michael you know I am not a democrat or republican. I don't own a TV, but I read. History is repeating itself. First NAFTA was not eliminated and the side bar agreement that 100 miles along the border would be a human free zone is still there. Thanks for nothing Trump. It just gave more government control.

The border wall is like the Berlin wall. The reason for the Berlin wall was because the east German military dressed in civilian cloths pretending to be westerners trying get into east Germany. The politicians claimed that westerners were trying to come in for socilize benefits. I never heard of westerners wanting in, but I heard of a lot of east Germans wanting out.

The Great Wall of China was built to keep the Hun out. Marco Polo said he had no problems walking through the gates into China, but it took 7 years to get the permit to leave. If it is strong enough to keep them out, then it is strong enough to keep you in.

The polical scare using the caravan is to take away more rights. Hitler was elected to make Germany great again. Isn't that what Trump said too? The election is rigged and they will be coming for more of our rights. Bush was reelected to GLO. He is going to destroy our history, the Alamo. It is not good against bad in politics. Both the democrat and republican are destroying our freedoms.  Politicians, FBI, cops, etc. committ crimes, but are not held accountable.

The less you are tied to the system, the less control they have over you.  Pay cash, use a small flip phone for calls only and read.  Gardening wouldn't hurt either.

Did you see the article today that the test scores of our children is the worst in history? Student loans are making slaves of our young adults. My sister in law borrowed $35,000 and makes payments. She now owes $92,000. When will everyone learn that you don't need college to earn a living.

[mjb: Your response is clearly heart-felt, but you do not answer the question I asked. This is one of the reasons politics has devolved into chicken fights.]

End government and watch the end of Man...at least Mankind.  Evil and sorcery will destroy what might remain behind if government were to be abolished completely.
Even Adam and Eve had government....they chose to DISOBEY....and look where it took us.

Adam Kokesh is proposing just such a sally....running for NOT President....and if elected, he will immediately SHUT DOWN GOVERNMENT. 

II am appallled at the sheer ignorance ..... we see others proposing the end of ALL FREEDOMS and RIGHTS ....which is equally preposterous.

I suspect the only way to find a workable solution to TOTAL ABOLISHMENT of government that we would have to remove ALL FREE WILL.....or our entire ability to react with instinct, and preprogarm all with mind numbing downloads....I doubt there is a workable solution.

Generallly, people are blissful in their awareness of how other countries and cultures live...we have absolutely NO UNDERSTANDING of the primitive cultures in the forests and jungles of our world...we barely recognize how the Native Americans conducted their lives without an organized, centralized governing body....even though some were advanced way beyond the white man that followed....there were Confederations established by the tribes in Illinois and Indiana....among other places in what is now the united States.  Even they utilized structured control mechansims.

But to boil it down to the simplest of terms.....I like Chevys....and if you don't?...TOO BAD....we all like Chevys...and you can have any color you want, as long as it is BLACK.

How's that Mike?

[mjb: I plan to comment on this an others as time permits. At the moment, I only have time to display this on the website.]

The question includes one of my favorite subjects.  Public schools.  Popular rhetoric is that everyone is entitled to an education thus confusing having a right with being entitled.  The fact is that everyone most certainly has a right to obtain an education.  How you obtain that education is up to you but it should never include the option of reaching into your neighbor's pocket (property tax) to pay for it which is exactly how public schools are funded.  The reality is that public schools will never go away.  They are the best babysitters you can get for the price. People in this country will NEVER give up their public schools.  Babysitters, transportation, meals, entertainment, after-hours care, sports, music, theatre, healthcare, and yes, in some cases education.  A step in the right direction would be to adopt a more European attitude towards school.  Many European schools are "free" but they deal ONLY with academics. If you want to play sports, be in an orchestra or a play, learn about gardening, etc, etc...you join clubs, teams or groups that are private and not associated with schools.  You pay for your child to take advantage of those activities.  Your neighbor does not.  That would go over like a lead balloon in this country.  I would encourage the complete elimination of public schools.  I do not agree that parents should be required to homeschool.  I don't think parents should be required to do anything.  They and they alone are their children's keepers.

I believe there are uses for government.  For example, due to the nature of humanity I believe that defense is necessary.  Perhaps more preparedness than defense.  Aggression should not be part of our military policy in any way.

If government safety nets were removed and people were truly responsible for themselves it would result in a generation of anguish while people learned personal responsibility and how to be free.  If we went through that we would come out stronger, smarter and actually free.  If the only issues were the removal of safety nets and the need to survive without them, people would take care of their own.  Those who required society and help would regroup into like-minded communities in an effort to pool resources to their benefit.  Back to the public school thing; parents who had an option to educate their children or not would have a whole new outlook on the need for their kids to know how to read, write and cipher!

The reality is that hungry and cold people will follow anyone who promises to ease their burden, to feed, shelter and care for them.  Thus the natural selection of learning to live free would be disrupted early on and, again, "governments" would be created and they would all be vying for power.

We will never eliminate government completely.  Most likely in our lifetime there will never be a step in the right direction to even reduce the size and scope of government.  Let's be realistic about how dependent all of us really are starting at the top; public schools, farm subsidies, unemployment insurance, social security, medicare, food stamps (LINK, WIC, TANF, SNAP and all the rest of those programs) Head Start, medicaid, children's health insurance, myriad community services, USPS, local, state and national parks, Obamacare, nursing homes, government grants and scholarships, subsidized public transportation, FDIC insurance, health departments, public housing, libraries, police, speed limits, roads, road signs, utility assistance and on and on.

This is only a sample of the most obvious, the point being that everybody has something to lose if government actually went away.  I am not saying that would be bad, I am saying that it won't happen because it is hard to live free and Americans don't really want to work at it.  In an orderly transition, all things government subsidized would not have to disappear completely (libraries, parks and roads for example) but would instead be privately owned and funded.  And yes, we would pay to use them but ONLY when we use them.

It is more complicated to figure out who would take over and own those institutions.  The most obvious answer is those wealthy enough to be the highest bidders (but who is selling)?  The least obvious is that money is one of those government institutions that would be gone.  Hmmm...  So if you wanted to own and run the library would you have to take it over by force and hold it from all challengers?

As to the first question of what steps would have to occur to eliminate government completely?  A complete revamp of our national mindset (that ain't gonna happen) or a revolution of such magnitude that it destroys our way of life as we know it. But this isn't the American Revolution where there was much more equality in weaponry.  A revolution today would not stand a chance against the technology available to the government.  In fact, just writing this speculative article probably got my name on on a list somewhere.

Conclusion: Figure out the best way for yourself to live in the world we have.

I concur.... I don't like anyone telling me what to do either. And like you Michael, I have not visited any voting booths in decades. But that doesn't mean we didn't vote. Indeed, not voting is a vote of no confidence. And I cast that non vote every election, the same as I cast my non vote at sports arenas where other "voters" pay a hundred dollars to watch illiterate millionaires play children's games. I also cast a non vote for banks and bankers by not banking or using credit cards. etc. etc. etc.

But to answer your question..... there must be government. Who is going to pave the streets? Maintain bridges and street lights? Regulate the location of pig farms and nuclear plants? The day the street lights fail will be the day there is instant grid lock. All transportation will cease. Government is a neccessary evil. But that being said, it should be operating at a tiny fraction of it's size, or to be more exact, within Consitutional limitations. About 90-95% less than it is now, on all levels.

[mjb: In the spirit of full disclosure, I admit that I am an (honorary) member of the Bourbon Committee]

[mjb: There should be at least one more comment here. I approved it (and commented on it) but I don't see it here. I know know why. If you don't see your comment here, please submit it again.]

[mjb: Just a brief reminder... this is a moderated list, which means I have to approve each post before it displays on the website. If I don't, this list would be littered with dozens of computer-generated SPAM. Thank you for your understanding. I will approve any post as long as it does not contain ad hominem attacks against other posters.]

A few years ago, in a moment of serious philosophical contemplation, I finally jumped a mental hurdle.  While being of a libertarian mindset for most of my adult life, possibly even earlier, I have struggled with some questions.  As mentioned in an earlier post, I never really came to terms with issues such as roads, national defense, and civil police.  Therefore, I had just accepted the idea, as the founding fathers of the US did, that government is a necessary evil.  One that should be vigilantly be kept to a minimum.

Obviously, keeping the state and federal governments in the U.S. to a minimum has failed.  Entirely.

During the aforementioned moment of contemplation, it finally dawned on me that the only possible way to assure true liberty as humans, we can not tolerate, nor allow any form of government what-so-ever.   It was a moment of epiphany.  One of those times that many people experience only a few times in their lifetimes.  I then went on to try to mentally resolve the issues such as public roads.  How do we provide for free passage, and the maintainance of roads?  Well, I think this is the libertarian point of volunteerism.  Any service or construction that is of a public nature must be maintained by volunteer effort and management.

These services would be funded and managed by free associations, sort of like home owner's associations, but without the typical Nazi-like leaders.

Do I think we are prepared for such an anarchical society?  Hell no!  Not even close.  It all has to start with education.  Not state sponsored education.  The state education isn't even capable of teaching fundemental skills any more, but I'm sure that a governent school could never be trusted with teaching anyone the philosophies and tool sets necessary to live an a government free society.  It would be at cross purposes to the existence of a government school.

So, this education has to be at the local level.  By local, I mean the family.  There could be groups dedicated to this goal, but the work has to be done at a very intimate, consistent and daily level.  What do we need to teach?  Well, I would start with Michael's simple but completely on target message ... "Don't hurt me, don't take my stuff."  Start there, and work toward the more nuanced aspects of how this applies to everyday life.

We must, as a society, become completely aware of what liberty, natural rights, and the responsibilities that accompany those rights mean.  The vast majority of people have to own the notion that they own themselves, the fruits of their labor, and their lives.  They have to own the notion that they are responsible for defending these rights.  Standing by and waiting for someone else to defend the individual's rights is not an option.

If and when a large enough majority of people understand the core principles involved in true liberty, true rights, and the associated responsibilities, then we can talk about eliminating government.