Quote from: niko on September 08, 2011, 02:20:37 AM

For example, I can't figure out how I would be driving a car or a bicycle around the city if there were no government to draw and enforce the rules of traffic. How would it work? Who would yield whom at an intersection? What would we do with dangerous drivers? Who's to say? These are not trivial questions. Of course, one can say how people would come up with rules "by themselves", but there would need to be some kind of framework for discussion, decision making, and even enforcement. And that, to me, is the government.

These are not trivial questions, but they are questions with real world solutions besides government. In fact, I'd be willing to wager that the roads that you drive on were no built by government, are not maintained by a government, and could also be policed by a private contractor even though they are not presently, and you would likely never notice the differences.

Governments don't build roads in America. They never have. They fund roads and maintaince via taxation, but there are other ways to fund roads if need be. The roads are built and maintained by construction contractors, and governments (at most) function as management. In fact, none of your vital public infrastructure is provided for you by any direct actions of a government official, beyond the funding aspect. Even in areas that the water or electic companys are publicly owned monopolies, the work of maintaince and expansion of the infrastructure network is done by employees of private industry. Hell, even the police and military were somewhat private enterprises in the United States once upon a time. The term 'constable' (where we get the term "cop" from, i.e. "constable on patrol") is an English word that literally refers to a privately hired policeman. To this day, the county that I live in, and technically every county in the state, has two publicly elected positions for constables, who are not paid by any government agency for the office. They are private security companies with state honored police powers. One guy gets elected to the office, and hires off-duty cops to patrol banks and ride along with bounty hunters and serve private civil court summons, etc. It's likely similar in your own city. The enforcement of the traffic codes could likewise be performed by private companies. For example, what if the funds from a traffic ticket went into the coffers of the constable's office after being proven in an independent traffic court? Enforcement would be both better, and more just, then is presently so.