I explained to my 8-year-old daughter today that, hypothetically speaking, the proper role of a government is to defend our life, liberty, and property. I said that ideally, we wouldn't even need a government to do that, but as a last resort only, its purpose is to protect those 3 things.

So if someone tries to kill you, or force you to do or not do something against your will, or steal something that belongs to you, and you have nowhere else to turn and no other way to defend yourself, then the government is supposed to be your final recourse.

Then I reminded her that the government is trying to force us to do and not do certain things against our will (this whole conversation started because I mentioned to her that buying organically farmed eggs from a fellow Bitcoiner was technically illegal, and she was like, "Huh?!?"). The government also steals from us in the form of taxes, inflation, eminent domain, and other methods. And, if we resist them with either of these things, they'll use physical force, and even kill us if they want. And there's no one we can go to for recourse from that.

From the indignant look on her face, I could tell she understood well enough for an 8-year-old just how bad the government really is.