> Job #1 for a national government is national security, and governments inherently have the power to intrude upon privately operated companies.
I would say that job #1 of a government is establishing and enforcing domestic property rights (to allow an economy to function); and job #2 is building public-good infrastructure like roads.
"National security" is job #1 of an organism interested in its own survival--but there's no reason a government needs to be such a thing; the only reason I can see for it is the precedent set by monarchies, where each current king wants the government to persist in its current form so that they themselves will stay in control of it. A government could run a country perfectly capably while leaving itself undefended from being "eaten" by a foreign government (or populist coup) at any time.
National Security is intrinsically about enforcing domestic property rights. It covers issues like terrorism but also foreign hostilities. Don't be a doof and pretend that National Security doesn't at least start with the interests of the citizens in mind. Seems like it gets awfully lost in the woods, but you can't pretend that if people just had the right ideals things would be fine.
I would say that job #1 of a government is establishing and enforcing domestic property rights (to allow an economy to function); and job #2 is building public-good infrastructure like roads.
"National security" is job #1 of an organism interested in its own survival--but there's no reason a government needs to be such a thing; the only reason I can see for it is the precedent set by monarchies, where each current king wants the government to persist in its current form so that they themselves will stay in control of it. A government could run a country perfectly capably while leaving itself undefended from being "eaten" by a foreign government (or populist coup) at any time.