There really is a place in this world for people who hate government

People who hate government always seem to come back to two examples -- the DMV and the Postal Service.

These two organizations are made to seem like the closest thing to Hell on Earth, things that would be so much better if we lived in a Libertarian paradise.

In reality, though, other things are far worse. The DMV is crowded because at one time or another, nearly everyone needs their services.

As for the Postal Service, I'm with Jon Stewart on this one. When someone attacked the Postal Service, he asked if they meant those people who would deliver a letter to his sister on the other side of the country within two or three days for less than half a dollar.

Awful, huh?

Anybody who thinks that's awful obviously has never dealt with a cable company. You know, the folks who tell you they'll be there on Thursday sometime between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to install your cable TV.

Or even worse, how about dealing with an insurance company? My friend Mick is a proud anti-government type, but the worst horror stories I have ever heard from him have nothing to do with the government. Mick can do an extemporaneous hour on the horrors of medical insurance.

Private medical insurance.

At least at the DMV there's no one whose job is to stop people from getting drivers' licenses.

The fact is for the last 35 years, there has been a concerted campaign by folks on the far right to destroy people's faith in government. Whether it has been eliminating programs that benefit the less fortunate, or flattening out the progressive income tax, or worst of all, the estate tax.

I've heard people say that one of the worst things about our country is that we have reached a point where people worry more about their rights than about their responsibilities.

On the most basic level, government exists for one of two reasons -- either to protect the poor from being exploited by the rich or to protect the rich from having their possessions stolen or destroyed by the have-nots. In recent years we have swung from one side of the pendulum to the other.

Seventeenth-century English philosopher John Locke said that the purpose of governments was to protect people's rights to life, liberty and property. Partly traditional, although the idea of liberty wasn't all that widespread in a 17th century in which kings ruled by the divine right of God.

In the final quarter of the 18th century, Thomas Jefferson spoke of the basic rights of man as being "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It may not have been as big a difference as it seems now; owning property was a big part of happiness in 1776. But I'm not sure Jefferson and the other founders ever envisioned a society in which one family would be worth $140 billion.

After all, as Doctor Evil learned in the "Austin Powers" movies, some sums are too big even to imagine.

And while it may be difficult for today's crop of Libertarians to imagine things worse than the DMV or the postal service, if you want the best present-day example of a Libertarian  paradise, just head northeast along the coast from Mombasa. It's an 18-hour drive from there to Eden.

Mogadishu, Somalia.

No laws, no gun control.

No DMV, no post office.

Just do whatever you want.