What should government not do?

They should not be corrupt and allow big corporations to dictate governmental policy.

They should not deregulate a sector that then means they need to bail that sector out like they have done with the banking industry recently

They should not torture possible terror suspects.

They should not get involved in illegal wars and lie to their population about the reasons for wars.

They should not make false election promises.

They should not act for the minority.

They should not allow big corporations to evade paying tax legally.

They should not allow 5% of the country to have 85-90% of the wealth

Just a few examples that have been around recently and both the governments of the US and UK are guilty of in my opinion.

The government should not do anything that isn't specifically enumerated in the Constitution, as specified by the 10th Amendment (there is a list of permitted legislative actions in Article 1, Section 8).

Legislate Morals. Or, make "victimless" crimes. Or, make crimes that the majority are against by polls, like pot. The government should Not tell people what do in the priovacy of their own home (except maybe Domestic Violence, I can see that.) No mandatory retirement--it is lifted, anyway,Growth vs.

Raise the retirement age. The last thing generation X and Y needs is a larger worker pool and the lower wages that comes with more people to pick from in the worker pool. It is bad enough we have technological unemployment creeping up on us.

Exceed the powers and functions delineated by the Constitution. That horse left the barn more than a few decades back.

Nothing. Government should not not do anything. Government should take care of us. Government should provide us with food, shelter, clothing, water, etc. Furthermore, iphones, blackberries, cars, xboxs, etc should be provided through government.

There are many things that the federal shouldn't do but either are doing or start doing. Like stealing money from other people to support other people's welfare and medical insurance

It should not break the law.

It should not COMPEL politically selected people to do the bidding of other politically selected people.

It should not REPEAT policies already proved to make matters worse.

In short, it should stop implementing what all Democrats always demand.

A governments "job" is to govern, not mandate to it's citizens what they can and/or cannot do...

you should read the Constitution and you will be able to write a long paper