When you discuss the matter of government with libertarians, they will rail against the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of government. They will talk about the superiority of private enterprise, because they say that the incentive of profit drives better efficiency and performance. If you just try to argue back, trying to defend specific government institutions, you will probably not win. The Libertarian will have an endless string of examples where various government institutions have failed in one way or another.
In order to successfully argue in support of government, you need to reframe the discussion. You need to step back and ask the question, "What is government?" You have to define government in the right way in order to have a chance of defending it. I like to define it this way:
Government is a body of people banding together to solve problems that cannot be solved by the profit motive.
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