What does government do well?

Any government in the world, any activity on which we can achieve consensus minus five.

To dispute consensus, include something like "I don't think any government does X well" in your post.

If I get 23 examples, I'll tone it down.

Governments do thousands of things. If we have a reasonable expectation of them doing anything well, I don't think 23 examples should prove too difficult to cite.

Only one government has to do it well, but only one activity per slot even if many governments do it well.

I'll start: Delivering mail

Fire Departments / EMT / EMS

Transportation infrastructure.

Schools

Parks and recreation facilites

Wildlife sanctuaries

Water / sewer delivery and infrastructure

Entertainment.

Inflame libertarians.

Threatening people with not toning it down? HAHA!



That's. . . pretty fucking funny.

How about we don't play your game, and you GTFO anyway?

i'm somewhat confused as to what the point is, here. i'm not sure if he's trying to prove that governments don't do enough things well to be worth keeping around (ie, he's some strain of anarchist), or if he's trying to prove that governments do many things well, and that the anarchists need to GTFO.

I'm almost positive that he's a Ron-Paulite, and therefore the former of your hypothesis [what's the correct pluralization of that word]?

hypotheses. or Ronpauloompas. which ever one you were wanting, there it is.

hypotheses.

dang, instaposted.

incentive =/= threat

Neither, and nothing so extreme. I don't believe people can handle either anarchy or libertarianism.

I do see an reliance on government that seems unsupported by the evidence.

Thanks!

and again

You got government in my anarchy!

No, you got anarchy in my government!

{?}

23 from me alone!
Space program (NASA)
Head-start
Funding basic reseach
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
US Coast Guard
NOAA
Economic Analysis
Patent & Trademarks
Consumer Product Safety Commission
FDIC
GAO
GPO
Medicaid/Medicare
Social Security
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Library of Congress
National Endowment for the Arts
National Science Foundation
Smithsonian
NTSB
Peace Corp
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency/Office of Thrift Supervision
US Mint

Wow, IDGAS. Of all those, I only agree with NASA. The government is also pretty good at spending money. Being a lobbyist of course, you would know that.

Protects us barbarians, I cannot recal the last time we where attacked by vikings, gauls, celts, huns, or mongols can you?

The Government has funded at the lowest possible levels, so much so that they rely also on the private non-profit sector and private donations, these so-called successes:

Fight wars.

Funding basic research is in the billions and runs from defense to health to wildlife. (Universities would be in bad shape without it.)

The CDC and Peace Corp are supported by the private sector? Please source this for me as I am interested to know the extent.

And while the others may not be funded at a level you want or may have outside support like the Smithsonian that does not make them (and the others) less of a success.