Re: OT: Socialism (WAS: Re: Saving endangered langs (was Re: Extrapolating languages)
| From: | Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, December 22, 2003, 22:04 |
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Quoting "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>:
> On Mon, Dec 22, 2003 at 09:29:30PM +0100, Andreas Johansson wrote:
> > I was thinking of money in the sense of "symbolic" money; notes, coins
> worth
> > more (or less) than their metal worth, electronic money, and so forth.
> >
> > Andreas
>
> The fact that the government prints the money does not mean that they
> therefore own the wealth it represents. Big, big difference.
Well, if the gov't was sending out armed thugs collecting money at gunpoint, I
might agree to describe it as theft. But when you hear about the
gov't "stealing" people's money, it's usually about taxation.
> Governments don't *own* anything. They are custodians of things which
> belong to the governed.
Why couldn't governments own stuff? There's sure plenty of signs saying "state
property" around ...
Andreas
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