well, this "on balance govt. is a net positive" thing often does not hold true what about regimes that murder and oppress their people, for instance we can criticise them according to uber that solves it mememe, governments provide benefits, governments need to be funded, the funding allocation will never be perfectly efficient, we can criticize that, but just because it's not entirely efficient doesn't mean we abandon the whole thing and throw the baby out with the bathwater, we work to improve it LordCow caught lying :) i don't think all governments are legitimate, there are good and bad ones. we should aim for good ones rather than bad ones, and one way to do that is to criticize the bad ones never why do govt's need to tax us? they print all the money themselves and spend a lot more than their take intake anyway if they can print money to bail out their buddies, why not just print to build roads and all that jazz http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Zumas-salary-increase-approved-20150604 Title: Zuma's salary increase approved | News24 (at www.news24.com) check that face content and I suppose that salary excludes all the other benefits, like the allowances for his many wives, private school fees for his many kids, etc yeh LordCow, if you took that to mean i think the only thing we need to do to 'solve' all the problems is to criticize, then you're positively autistic, or dishonest i didn't say only thing your'e the dishonest one not me fuck, i would love to take a shit on that face of his and i have tons of evidence you clearly said one way to go from bad to good gov is criticism * LordCow will let the audience decide, since after all the times you're not capable either autistic or dishonest, not sure which one anyway, doesn't matter