Great anti-govt article, but even it gives govt too much credit:
"While nothing is added to humanity by stealing from one man and
giving to another, much is destroyed."
Here would be the corrected version:
While nothing is added to humanity by stealing from one man and
giving part of it to another, much is destroyed."
Before the govt redistributes the wealth it stole, it skims off
the bulk for itself.
+++++++++++++++
Hello All,
I do not believe I have read a more precise dissection of what
Government is and is not then in the following piece below.
Here is just one excerpt from it which pretty much says it all:
"It is the purpose of all governments to murder that they might
get gain. This plain and simple truth is so harsh upon the human
mind, that few are willing to accept it. The rulers in government
exploit every opportunity to proclaim their altruism, their
service, their benevolence, their necessity, and their right to
rule. The fabrications that they return in exchange for obedience
are nothing more than worthless paper promises."
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Worthless Paper Promises
by Jeremy Locke
by Jeremy Locke
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It is the purpose of all governments to murder that
they might get gain. This plain and simple truth is so harsh upon
the human mind, that few are willing to accept it. The rulers in
government exploit every opportunity to proclaim their altruism,
their service, their benevolence, their necessity, and their
right to rule. The fabrications that they return in exchange for
obedience are nothing more than worthless paper promises.
Purveyors of Violence
What goods or services can a government provide? What
promises can it keep? Without exception, every nation and empire
in history has promised that it will provide for the defense and
welfare of its citizens.
Whatever means a government may have at its disposal,
be they gold, armies, organization, or even factories and farms;
they are all provided through violence. This is the fundamental
separation between free enterprise and government. You can choose
your enterprises, but you cannot choose your empire.
All means of government are acquired through force.
By whatever name, all possessions of governments are attained
through violent means. From national lands, to national
treasuries, to indentured servants, every possession of every
nation is acquired through the means of taxes or war. When
tribute is demanded and paid, it is a tax. When tribute is
refused and taken by force, it is war. The scale of these tactics
does not diminish this truth. If they are used against a lone
rogue in the wilderness, or against a mighty people overseas, the
results and purposes are the same.
Gain for governments may come in the form of
recognized money, or of conquered lands, or by the ability to
command the arbitrary obedience of peoples. All governments use
both the threat and the actual use of violence in order to get
gain.
Promises
One of the biggest questions left to thinking people
is: What if the government does not live up to its promise? If
the police fail to defend your family from invasion, or your home
from robbery, will they step aside so that you can choose a
capable candidate to secure you? There is a word for attempting
to select a better protector for yourself; it is treason.
Promises governments make in exchange for obedience
cannot be kept. This may seem to be an overzealous statement, but
it is not. It is a simple truth that you cannot create by
destroying. Life is the stuff of choices, the stuff of searching
and learning. You cannot gain happiness or prosperity when the
essence of life - free will - is destroyed. It is simply not
possible.
A government may promise wealth or security, but
after its machinations are put in place, it will destroy instead
of create. A tax collector may believe he is advancing the
greater good. A solider may believe that he is securing liberty.
A bureaucrat may believe that he is organizing others' lives more
efficiently. No exceptions, if an action of law removes choice
from human life, it can only destroy. Muggers, rapists and mafias
destroy free will in various ways. Few would make the claim that
they add benefit to society, despite any other actions they may
take outside their criminal occupations.
While nothing is added to humanity by stealing from
one man and giving to another, much is destroyed. The first loses
the fruits of his labor, and his trust for his fellow man. The
second loses the ambition to create in favor of making slaves of
his neighbor. You cannot create anything good by destroying free
will. The facts are plain. That which destroys, destroys.
Social Insurance
One of modern history's most audacious promises
issued by governments is the idea of social insurance, either in
the form of medical or retirement benefits, stored with the
government, in the promise of future security.
The essence of such promises is that if you yield
money and control to the rulers of law today, they will make sure
that you are provided for in the future. The most obvious and
immediate effect of such systems is the transfer of wealth (by
force, since such things are never voluntary) from the citizenry
to the government. The more sinister and latent effect is that it
urges people into a complete dependence upon law.
Social insurance schemes create volumes of paper
promises (or just mysterious "trust us" notions) that are issued
to people in exchange for obedience today. Hard assets (labor and
obedience) are transferred to the rulers now, in exchange for
unaccountable promises tomorrow.
Fiat Currencies, Bonds
The paper promises most frequently seen in normal
life, of course, are the currencies issued as money by
governments. Whether they be total fiat currencies, asset-backed
currencies, or bonds, governments issue paper promises redeemable
tomorrow, in exchange for hard assets (your labor) today.
As with all laws, such promises are not purchased
voluntarily. In order to buy and sell, without risking chains,
one must use the law's paper. As with all paper promises, hard
assets are yielded today, in exchange for an unaccountable
promise tomorrow - the ability to redeem the paper for something
of value.
Such paper promises can be inflated, defaulted,
reneged, or subjected to involuntary terms at any time.
Real Estate, Deeds
People who purchase real property perceive that they
are trading money for a hard asset. This should be true, but it
is not.
Under governments, people do not actually purchase
real property; they purchase deeds, a paper permission from
government to possess property. The deed requires annual
maintenance fees called property taxes. Purchasing real estate
under governments is actually a transfer of hard assets (the tax)
in exchange for the paper promise that government will enforce
your ability to possess that property.
As with all government paper, the terms can change at
any time. They can raise the extraction cost, or they can
arbitrarily determine rules upon which you use your property.
Hard assets go to the rulers of law, and phantom paper promises
go to you.
There is no negotiation; if you want property, you
must accept the arbitrary rule of law.
Law, Treaties, Constitutions
Without a doubt, the most sinister, cunning, and
all-sweeping paper promises ever issued by the rulers of law, are
laws themselves. The formula is the same. You have no choice in
accepting the transaction; where you are born determines the
rulers you will obey. The gain yielded to governments is nothing
short of your entire life - your complete and total obedience to
any future demand they create. The paper promises they return in
exchange are written laws guaranteeing your security and
prosperity. Hard assets are yielded involuntarily, and paper
promises are given in return.
The supreme proof that such promises were never meant
to be kept is the massive destruction of both wealth and security
created by law. The most sweeping name for that destruction is
war. Governments are very, very good at it.
Pure Theft
It is a simple truth that there is no reason to use
force against people unless you are trying to steal something
from them. All of the paper promises of law are worthless,
because there is no intention of them being kept. If law was
willing to live up to its promises, it wouldn't need to force
people to accept them. The reason it must force people is because
it has no intention of returning equal value for that which it
takes. It issues phantom promises to quiet the minds of its
victims, lest they rebel.
February 6, 2007
Jeremy Locke [send him mail] is the author of The End
of All Evil.
Copyright C 2007 LewRockwell.com
