The problem with this interminable argument about government and force is that it implicitly involves unreasonable people. What allows the government to collec

The problem with this interminable argument about government and force is that it implicitly involves unreasonable people. What allows the government to collect taxes? Lethal force! But also... What keeps people from driving on the wrong side of the road? Lethal force! What keeps people from dining and dashing? Lethal force! What keeps from using park benches as toilets? Lethal force! For the most part people are reasonable and if you indicate that they need to do something or refrain from doing something, they go along. If they don't, you can write a law with some enforcement mechanism, and then they go along. If they still don't, you can increase the bite of the enforcement mechanism. Rarely do you have Bartleby the Scrivener types who simply refuse to cooperate, and even then, the consequence for them, like for Bartleby, is generally fines or time in state custody, not lethal force. The government, through its agents, often does employ lethal force with tragic consequences, but this is usually the result of the agents enforcing their own special laws -- respect my authority or I will kill you -- not the actual laws and their legal enforcement mechanisms. Many nations have no death penalty. Many have police officers who vary rarely kill their citizens. These nations are often very nice countries to live in.