anarchyfla asked: I understand your argument, but it leaves me wondering where government gets its authority to grant rights and take it away. My primary reason for asking this is to try to understand where people that view rights and government differently from me are coming from and where they see the state as deriving its power. I don't know if this is a subject that you're particularly interested in, which is maybe why you're the best person to ask.

The government only derives power from the people it governs. It is the people that give government its power. Without the people, the government would be nothing. The government serves the people.

If the people want something, the government gives it to them—it’s the natural order ;-). Therefore, if the people want equality, the government better damn well give it to them! If the people want health care, the government better deliver. The government must look to ensuring that its people flourish (because this is something that the people want even if they don’t know it). This is why the government requires that kids stay in school… etc. All of this speaks to the government’s responsibility for looking after the happiness and well-being of its citizens.

In taking care of its citizens, the government must place a lot of limitations on them. In order to protect its people, the government must prevent them from killing each other, for instance. The government is also responsible for protecting them from things they may not even know are dangers (like regulating the economy and making laws which protect the environment—I can explain more about this if you ask).

By living and paying taxes in a certain nation, people consent to giving the government its power. They are agreeing to live within the social contract and accepting the government as the policer of that contract.

Does that make sense? Did it answer your question?