Ludwig von Mises, the greatest economist of the 20th century, felt that government is necessary to "make the social system of cooperation work smoothly without being disturbed by violent acts on the part of gangsters whether of domestic or of foreign origin". But he was not fooled about the nature of government. He called it "the opposite of liberty. It is beating, imprisoning, hanging." He defined government as "the social apparatus of repression and coercion". He was quite apt to describe it this way. Everything the government does, it accomplishes by violently extracting wealth from the productive (non-government) sector of the economy. An appeal to the government for solutions to societal problems is an appeal to violence. It is an appeal to forcing your neighbor, at gunpoint, to conform to the standards you have set for him.
I am a proponent of the non-aggression principle (NAP). The NAP basically boils down to the moral assertion that the only legitimate use of violence is in defense of persons or property. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Live and let live. Anyone who violates this principle by aggressing against another member of society is considered a criminal. Anyone who does not engage in aggressive behavior towards others' property, is not a criminal. Using this criteria makes it difficult to view our government in a sympathetic light. On the one hand, the government will arrest, detain, and fine non-criminal people for ingesting substances that have been forbidden by the government. On the other, it allows the criminal Federal Reserve to steal the purchasing power of every citizen through inflation. Is this how we want the government directing its monopoly on "legitimate" violence?
Private property is the foundation on which a free market economy is built. But our government, which was allegedly established in order to protect private property, has become its biggest enemy. They have become the very gangsters from which Mises hoped they would protect us. They seem to consider nothing but how to loot more money out of us to use for their ends. A recent example of this is the new internet sales tax law they are attempting to pass. The "Market Place Fairness Tax" (How Orwellian does that sound?) would make internet retailers responsible for collecting the sales tax on behalf of the states in which their customers reside. Consumers typically can't avoid paying these taxes when they go to a local business. So, they tend to purchase more goods via the internet. Congress' idea of fairness is making it more difficult for consumers to avoid sales tax on their internet purchases as well. Not even for a second would most of these thieving thugs consider leveling the playing field by eliminating the sales tax altogether. Though such a move would make things just as "fair", it doesn't increase the amount of your money they are able to get their grubby hands on.
In reality, they are not concerned with fairness, or welfare, or safety, or equality, or any of the numerous pleasant sounding concepts they use as aegises for their actual plans of plunder and power accumulation. And they will beat, imprison, and hang anyone if it will help them to accomplish that end. We need to expand the sphere in which the government may not operate. We need more liberty and less repression.
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