Responding to msg by Michael Conlen: Theft could be from thoes who do not protect there property and from thoes who do not respect others property, so can it also be said that 'bad government' can be from people not protecting there rights and people who have no respect for the rights of others? ............................................................... What should really be said is that theft does not happen of its own accord; someone must decide to accomplish the so-called criminal act. To describe theft as the result of another's inaction is to imply that human action of any kind is mostly automatic, that there is a pull like gravity which will cause action upon intelligence the way gravity affects inanimate objects, and that nothing better could be or should be expected from it. It is also to imply that the possession of intelligence is negligible because any opportunity for taking advantage of another's vulnerability will be irresistible to humans, as if they were basically scavengers looking for the spoils of other people's negligence. In which case, rather than speaking of bad government, the subject should be a question on the existence of intelligence & the possibility for morality. I don't know who would be qualified to discuss it, though, without the possession of the one and an appreciation of the other. Blanc