zlacker

There's a lot of American libertarians that believe government is intrinsically bad, for some reason. And also a monolith; they don't see any difference between bits of government, different branches, different types of enforcement, and so on. They're very loath to admit that it takes a certain minimum amount of structure to keep the roads open and the lights on.

>>pjc50+(OP)
> to keep the roads open and the lights on

I'd cynically add:

> and to prevent people from killing and robbing each other each day

There's a reason we have Wikipedia articles like this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highwayman

>>oblio+U3
I do agree with the power of government to break the prisoners dilemma regarding to public works, but not that they have that much control over people's behavior.

The tendency of people to follow laws has shown little relation to blunt enforcement. It has to do with peoples tendency to follow norms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_cohesiveness