Government is a Protection Racket

My position, as a Libertarian, is that government-all governments-are simply parasitical protection rackets who have dressed themselves up in the finest propaganda for the sake of being accepted by society. My opponent is correct that civilization needs a legal system to protect property and settle disputes, but he is incorrect in saying that only government can establish an accepted legal system. Law in Pre-Medieval Western Europe consisted of local, voluntary groups pooling their resources for the sake of ensuring protection from and restitution for criminal invasion. There were no taxes or standing armies to speak of but law and order was maintained. This same system would be very much desirable for today. But I digress, this debate focuses on the myth that government creates order, or at least prevents disorder from breaking out in society. My opponent says that government was formed to protect society. Protect? Doesn't government precisely fit the definition of a protection racket, "protecting" those who pay and killing those who do not? Does government not derive its tax-funding through the use of violent force? Don't government wars, from both sides, slaughter numerous innocents? Aren't many of these innocents forcibly enslaved into the ranks of government armies? For those who fear chaos, shouldn't they be working very hard to abolish the institution that has shown itself to be the most violent, the most fraudulent, and the most chaotic institution of all time? Government maintains a monopoly on violence, a monopoly that is said to prevent abuse. But simple economics explain that whoever controls a monopoly will do their best to raise costs and decrease the quality of the service of product. In other words, government only receives a pay-raise when it expands. This is a built-in incentive for government to perpetuate the problems it is called on to solve. Government will seek to breed long-term dependency on their aid for the treating of only the symptoms of social issues without fixing the problem. For if the problem were fixed what use would the bureaucrats of that government department be? Government needs chaos and destruction in order to survive and expand. These incentives are very dangerous because it means that government has enormous motive to intentionally harm its populace. This pattern of thievery and murder has only been able to persist because of the elaborate use of establishment propaganda by intellectual leaders. These intellectuals, in exchange for wealth and privilege, use their influence in the classroom, the pulpit, or the news studio to beam messages of submission and admiration for the state and its existence. Today this propaganda comes in the form of government-licensed TV and radio, government compulsory education for the youth, and government-accrediting of colleges and universities. These institutions spread the message that government is natural, traditional, even divine. Given the wide-spread devotion to accepting the state as a given, they apparently have been quite successful. Removing the monopoly on violence would give law and order (and in turn all other government functions) over to the accountability and transparency of the free-market. An era of peace and prosperity never seen before can be reasonably expected to emerge in such an environment. If we look at the state for what it truly is, we come to see it as what the mafia could only aspire to ever be; a protection racket that the population welcomes.