Necessary Evils

Thomas Paine stated in Common Sense "Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." With this being said, I began to wonder what other things would be considered "necessary evils." So my question is just that, What are some things that are considered "necessary evils" today? According to http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6084.html, conducting layoffs at work places are necessary evils. Sometimes there are too many people and not enough money to go around, so the managers just have to do it. A really interesting quote I found on that website was "We define a necessary evil as a work-related task that requires a person to cause physical, emotional, or material harm to another human being in order to advance a perceived greater good." This article was really interesting because it talked about how we tend to focus on the emotions of the person being laid off and not so much on the person who is having to carry it out. To put a necessary evil into easier terms to understand, I found the definition at http://www.englishclub.com/ref/esl/Idioms/N/a_necessary_evil_208.htm. According to that website, a necessary evil is defined as something you do not necessarily like but you understand that is has to be accepted sometimes or it has to exist. The example they used was "Sandra says money is a necessary evil. She thinks it causes many problems, but she can't imagine how the world could work without it." One thing I found particularly funny was an article from Marie Claire magazine entitled "5 Necessary Evils to Compete in the Dating World." http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/men/necessary-evils-dating-world This article was talking to men about how to find a girl. The necessary evils were 1. Going to the gym, 2. Cleanliness and hygiene, 3. Intelligence, 4. Income, and 5. Effort. This was funny because those are things you should probably do on a regular basis! In general, this blog probably has nothing to do with Thomas Paine other than what he said about necessary evils, but I took that and looked more into it.