To be clear, I think anarchy would be much worse and that governments are necessary. Evidence from the genetic record shows epochs where almost all men died due to violence, and anthropological evidence shows societies can have extremely high murder rates, approaching 50 percent, without a government in place to interrupt blood feuds.
One thing I'll say about modern gangs, however, is that they're in large part caused by governments. The high murder rate in South America is downstream from puritanical government drug restrictions in North America. Gangs will still exist even without perverted incentives provided by government, it's true, but governments are part of the picture here.
Your point about the slave trade is a good one and it just shows that corporations - and people in general - do need at least a minimalist government to protect individual rights.
I really like that point about how government drug policies in North America lead to gang formation in South America. It seems that government creates and resolves conflict, and sometimes get blamed for doing too much of the former and not enough of the latter.
I guess the more that I've thought about running for office, and more so, actually governing, the more that I've started to see how government can get blamed for so many things, direct and indirect. For example, some company moving overseas and laying off its employees, and people blaming the government because it didn't prohibit the company from making that move and protecting people from that company, more so than being angry at the company. Almost like being more angry at the parent who doesn't protect us from our sibling than the sibling who is hitting us.
Anyways, I appreciate our back and forth, thank you for helping me see things a bit differently.
One thing I'll say about modern gangs, however, is that they're in large part caused by governments. The high murder rate in South America is downstream from puritanical government drug restrictions in North America. Gangs will still exist even without perverted incentives provided by government, it's true, but governments are part of the picture here.
Your point about the slave trade is a good one and it just shows that corporations - and people in general - do need at least a minimalist government to protect individual rights.