-- James A. Donald wrote:
If, however, you decline to pay taxes, men with guns will attack you.
That is the difference between private power and government power.
ken wrote:
But in most places at most times the state is run at least partly by and for the rich and the owners of property and supports and privileges their continuing private power.
The state was created to attack private property rights - to steal stuff. Some rich people are beneficiaries, but from the beginning, always at the expense of other rich people.
And there are circumstances where private individuals send men with guns to attack you if you cross them.
Compare mafia "extortion" with government "taxation". The mafia charges are small in proportion as their power is small. The Gangsta disciples charged drug dealers thirty dollars a month for protection, and, unlike the state, actually provided protection. The mafia cannot afford to seriously piss off its customers, because there is no large difference between customer firepower and mafia firepower. The government, on the other hand, can afford to seriously piss of its subjects. The federal government established its monopoly of force by burning Atlanta and Shenendoah. Al Capone did the Saint Valentine's day massacre. Big difference.
Quite a lot of them, from the feudal barons, to drug-dealers in modern cities, to just about anywhere out of easy reach of the state's police.
Again, compare the burning of Shenendoah with the Saint Valentine's day massacre. There is just no comparison. Governmental crimes are stupendously larger, and much more difficult to defend against. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG sE92+Z9bMSzulF42TGzG/hIjoDv+qod3IBzFehdT 4O/i5gQElpUPn6EYOMIETP8gkc9EP5DSN2QYuq83i