Government does not exist in the same way an indvidual does. However an individual can commit atrocities via government, we do not say that person in particular committed murder, they reason that specific individual didn't kill somebody but the government of that region did the atrocity. It obscures the reality of individuals acting in the name of government, and therefore eliminates accountability.
Positive rights are a misnomer, it is a way the government obscures it's tasks. You have the right to govern; from persons and their property but you do not have the right to people or their property. There is a difference; individuals acting under the authority of the government are not justified acting contrary to that maxim.
The free market via voluntary exchange and the profit initiative, can create cheaper and better goods. It should be the mechanism of use. The government costs more than the private sector, a good example would be the existence of administrative costs and also it's tendency to become more inefficient over time.
If businesses become inefficient, they go out of business; if government agencies poorly provide services they are kept afloat by the tax payers. One has an incentive to create value as to gain profit, the other has the incentive to maintain their beuracratic position, even if it does not add value to the society.
Most wars would not happen, if people were not forcefully mandated to fight in wars through drafts or those who serve to go fight wars that go against their values. War is mostly a confluence of people fighting for the elitists agendas. Millions of people have died under this collectivist abstraction, and billions have been stolen.
The problem is that people are not held accountable while in office; they merely commit mass attrocities and wars and simply leave office. In a state of nature, there's potentially 100,000 people that could harm your person or steal your property. However, they have an incentive to protect their own persons and property, thus we made government to protect persons and property.
Beyond that, government actions are unjustifiable. However, the problem with government is that, whereas it's unlikely that among thousands of people, maybe one or two may harm or steal from you. However, instead of having 10,000 individuals acting on their own; you have ten thousand soldiers acting under one man's objective. It becomes clear that if this person is despotic, it will wreck havoc and history has shown us repeatedly, that this is the case.
The average working man is not terribly concerned with foreign affairs, and neither should he be subjugated to involuntary servitude via the draft unless if it is to protect his people and their property, nor should he be economically forced to pay for wars, that don't involve any of his affairs.
We have poor people living in tents that are veterans. Instead of helping Americans suffering, tax payer money is used to help fund wars overseas that have nothing to do with us. If the government activity does not protect persons and property, but endangors and misuse them in foreign agendas. This is beyond the scope of what government should do.
The free market is the real path to making wealth honestly and reducing poverty. The free market requires the production of a commodity or service or value, that will benefit, both the producer and the customer through voluntary exchange.
When the abstraction of government is expanded to the point that it interferes with voluntary exchange via high taxation or creating barriers to entry through regulations and mandates, it becomes an impediment. It's job is merely to facilitate the voluntary exchange of property, not take more of it or distribute it.
Government is an abstraction that allows the populace to absolve themselves from personal responsibility. Such as colonialism and imperialism, as these individuals under the title of government; stole both property and persons with slavery. As a matter of fact American policing started when they rounded up slaves that escaped, under the fugitive slave act.
Government is defined as the institution that has the monopoly of violence. Just because we get to vote, it does not change the nature of it. Most of us function in our daily lives perfectly fine without government. Usually when the government is involved there is an issue at hand.
Socialism and communism fail, because "the people" is an abstraction, there are only individuals. It becomes even more of an abstraction when a few people, are concidered or consider themselves the voice of all people. The danger of marxism, is that you are replacing one elite with another, and giving them authority to take people's property or even lives under the justification, it is for 'the people'.
Thus delegating decision making to the political elites, who use it to subjugate all those who oppose them, and enrich themselves on others coerced labor, and property is not logical. In a democracy, we could just call that higher taxation and inflation, because of government spending.
You can't hold entire countries accountable for genocides and such, if it's the military doing it. You can't jail a country, no such accountability exists.There lies a paradox, the people won't take the accountability for bad militarisitic actions but would celebrate incessantly if it benefited them. This abstraction is able to kill and steal, under the banner of authority of 'the government or 'the people' but this is only an abstraction, society is composed of individuals.
Individuals can be held accountable for attrocities through fines and jail and other measures, whereas we can't jail the government and even if they are fined, they will have to take it from the people. We have to realize collectivist ideologies are abstractions, there are only individuals and everybody is personally responsible for what they choose to do.