The majority of government “services” don’t need to exist at all. Those for which organic demand exists would be fulfilled by the market in the absence of the state. Nothing good would go away because government did, but many horrible things would come to an end.
Why do people oppose this shift? There are two reasons. The first is that they want to impose their preferences on others through violence and the existence of government allows them to do so without getting their own hands dirty. The second is that they want to engage in consumption at the expense of others and, once again, government allows them to plunder their productive neighbors from the comfort of their subsidized sofas.
In short, people support the existence of government because they are criminals and the state creates a façade of legitimacy for their criminality.
