What separates government from the rest of society isn’t its size, its disregard for profit, its foresight, or its scope.
The distinctive feature of government is coercion, the use of force and the threat of force to win obedience. This is how government differs from every other agency in society. The others persuade; government compels.
When someone demands that government help flood victims, he is saying he wants to force people to pay for flood relief. Otherwise, he’d be happy to have the Red Cross and its supporters handle everything.
When someone wants government to limit the price of a product, he is asking to use force to prevent people from paying more for something they want. Otherwise, he would simply urge people not to patronize those he thinks are charging too much.
When Congress passes a bill mandating “family leave,” it forces every employer to provide time off for family problems, even if its employees want the employer to use payroll money for some other benefit. Otherwise, employers and employees would be free to decide what works best in each situation.
Nothing involving government is voluntary, as it would be when a private company does something. One way or another, there is compulsion in every government activity:
The government forces someone to pay for something;
The government forces someone to do something; or
The government forcibly prevents someone from doing something.
There is no other reason to involve government.
And by “force” I mean the real thing,the kind that hurts people.