Wow, really? Literally everyone except anarchists and libertarians agrees with my above view. Everyone with the slightest amount of understanding of how the human species creates and perpetuates community and culture shares my view. That includes Communists, Nazis, Liberal Democrats, Whigs, Tories, The Pope, Queen Elizabeth II, Gandhi, Vladimir Putin, Plato, John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, Voltaire, Kim Jong-Un.
Literally everyone of any consequence in all of human history understands that the entire purpose of government is to be the body that makes decisions on behalf of the community. It's only adolescent-headed libertarians and anarchists that don't understand this. Privileged idiots out of touch with reality.
You think bosses just spring up out of the ground? Or political leaders? Or parents? All of these authorities are created by society through social processes and their behaviour is determined by social processes. Parents are given authorities XYZ based on social consensus, but denied authority to e.g. abuse their kids. Bosses are given authorities ABC but denied other authorities and so on. These roles are all socially defined and came about through social processes.
"Who should decide?" The appropriate authorities that have been selected by social processes to have that authority. Your question is so fucking dumb because it pretends to be oblivious to the fact that legitimate authorities are put into power precisely because the community has delegated the job of deciding to them.
Your question amounts to saying "It's wrong that the legitimate authorities who have been elected, selected, chosen to decide questions within their sphere are making decisions within their sphere! What right do those legitimate community chosen leaders have to make decisions on behalf of the community!?"
Fucking idiot. The community leaders have the legitimate authority to make the community decisions precisely because the entire purpose of their office, and the reason they were put in that office, is so that they would and could make those decisions.
You're begging the question. "Who should decide?" is a retarded libertarian talking point that just emphasizes how little you understand co-operation and the entire fucking purpose of government.
"Who should decide?" The fucking GOVERNMENT. THAT IS WHY THEY EXIST. TO BE THE ONES WHO DECIDE.
>(governments in their role as social planners) enact policies to alter the risk landscape to achieve desirable social/economic ends and sometimes rents for specific interest groups.
Yes. And this is a GOOD thing. Because society as a whole (not to mention the human fucking species) is better off when certain special interest groups are advantaged: Children. The Elderly. Parents. Altruistic people. Social services. Healthcare. Investment in basic science research. Space exploration. Protecting the environment.
...and when certain people are disadvantaged: Killers. Psychopaths. Rapists. Thieves. Bullies. People who exploit market inefficiencies. Monopolists. Oligarchs that buy elections and bribe politicians. Aristocrats who throw their weight around to abuse and bully.
If you think certain types of people ("special interest groups") should NOT receive advantages or disadvantages based on their value to the human species... well... then you are f u c k i n g d u m b.
Who decides these things? WE DO. SOCIETY. YES, LIBERTARIANS, SOCIETY IS REAL.
I'll tell you who. Everyone should decide together. Like mature adults with a brain. This is how society is and always has worked.
Parents decide how to raise their kids.
Bosses decide how their employees will act.
Elected leaders decide on what norms the country will have.
You are promoting a kind of ridiculous individualism that is completely disconnected from reality. No one is an island. We all exist in a community and a society and the rules of our society are determined--ideally--through mutual discussion, thinking, negotiation, agreement.
"Who should decide for someone else?" WTF are you talking about? Society should decide social issues. That's who.
So you swung from one idiotic ideology to the opposite one. Eric Hoffer had a lot to say about this. The Communists recruit from the Nazis, and the Nazis recruit from the Communists, because all ideological mass movements (even "opposing" ones) are made up of the same idiots and losers who can't think for themselves--who can't make an intelligent decision without submission to some ridiculous utopian fantasy whether it's rightwing or left.
Human beings with a brain, in discussion with other humans, creating the kind of world they want to live in. Just like everything else in the world is decided.
It makes no sense at all to pretend that humans are too stupid to understand what is and is not good for our planet. The whole point of having language and intelligence is that it should be used, not just discarded with some discredited hand wave that "if we just do nothing, everything will work out for the best!"
Literally everyone of any consequence in all of human history understands that the entire purpose of government is to be the body that makes decisions on behalf of the community. It's only adolescent-headed libertarians and anarchists that don't understand this. Privileged idiots out of touch with reality.