Imagine Life Without Government

When I recently returned to Pakistan after six months in Dubai, one of the first things I did was to recharge my prepaid mobile account at the airport. To my surprise, for Rs. 100 prepaid card, I received credit only for Rs. 85 with fifteen rupees gone to the government. It struck me that government was making more than the mobile phone companies, from mobile card sales. The mobile phone company was responsible for providing me a service for Rs. 85 it had charged. The government on the other hand was not accountable to me at all, for the Rs. 15 I had just paid into it's kitty.

I took a taxi home. On my way, I couldn't resist feeling like I had been cheated, not by a robber, but by my own Government. I thought about why Pakistanis had grown insensitive to unjust taxation, without any rational or accountability on part of government.

The taxi driver told me that the fuel prices had not been reduced in Pakistan - in line with the one third drop in oil prices in world markets. Here again, the government was making more money on every liter of petrol, than everyone else in the supply chain. If I could see these taxes being spent by the government in a responsible manner on public good, I probably would have not felt as bad.

In the taxi, on the way back, I started wondering how the central government of Pakistan was taxing us, more vehemently than even the colonial British government. My eyes wondered outside the taxi, looking for government. What role was the central government serving? I couldn't stop myself from fantasizing how life would have been different if we had no central government. There would be far fewer taxes. The fuel would probably be selling at Rs. 20 per liter. And I would have gotten credit for all of my hundred rupees I spent on the phone card.

I think that 'no government' is not possible. But 'less government' and 'good government' is certainly possible. I kept fantasizing about life without the government, till I reached home. As the taxi entered the area where I live, the entire area was immersed in dark. It was load shedding time.