Rational people should seek to reduce or eliminate physical force, or the threat of physical force, used against them or their trading partners. This is the onl

Rational people should seek to reduce or eliminate physical force, or the threat of physical force, used against them or their trading partners. This is the only controversial thing I have to say in this comment (and I don't expect you to believe it just because I say it, but there it is nonetheless). Everything else in this comment follows directly and non-controversially from that. Government is the institution that bans the use of force by exercising a monopoly on the use of force (which requires force). In other words, government is what takes us out of an anarchic, Hobbesian state of nature. So the government should hold a monopoly on force but should only use it to prevent anyone else from using force against individual citizens. Thus, police and courts are legitimate functions of government, to maintain the internal ban on force and punish those who use it (e.g. criminals). To protect citizens from external threats, a defensive military is a legitimate function of government. So just those three institutions: police, courts, and military. Schools and firefighting should be left to the private sector (so either for-profit businesses or local co-ops).