NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/comp/org/eff/talk/5723

Internet Message Format | 1992-09-08 | 3.6 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!ogicse!hp-cv!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!ucbvax!NPRDC.NAVY.MIL!malloy
From: [e-mail] (Sean Malloy)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: taxes, theft, police, etc.
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 8 Sep 92 15:40:54 GMT
Article-I.D.: skinner.9209081540.AA02057
References: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: Navy Personnel R&D Center, San Diego
Lines: 62

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Gary J. Weiner) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Roger Franz) writes:
>And furthermore, without a government, there would be no money. That's
>right no money. You might get by with gold or some other intrinsic
>value metal, but its damn inconvenient.

Look at a dollar bill; do you see _anything_ there that gives it any
intrinsic value whatsoever? Back when the US ran on a hard-money
standard, a dollar bill represented a known amount of gold or silver,
because you could go to the government and exchange your currency for
gold or silver. Now our money has value because the government says it
does. And if an individual tried to do the same thing the government
has done -- print trillions of pieces of paper and claim that they
have value -- he'd be laughed out of town. But currency doesn't _have_
to be backed by precious metals; it can be backed by _any_ property of
value; Japan ran for hundreds of years on a currency that was tied to
the value of rice, for example. Precious metals have historically been
used because they are essentially permanent and the quantity that is
available is limited.

But _anyone_ who produces a tangible product can issue currency based
on their product; all they have to do is guarantee that their currency
can be exchanged for a known quantity of their product. You will have
different people's currency having different values -- the value of a
corn-based currency is dependent on the availability of corn, and the
value of a whiskey-based currency is dependent on the availability and
quality of the whiskey -- but this is no different than the value
differences between national currencies now. And specified quantities
of precious metals will still be usable, except that their value will
depend only on their weight, not on the arbitrary value assigned to
them by a government -- which may not have anything to do with the
actual quantity of metal.

>>Not true either. You socialists really like to distort the truth.
>
>Wow, I don't think I've EVER been called a socialist. I should save this
>post and show it to my friends.

You believe that the government should extract money from citizens as
a whole and use it to pay for services that only the government should
provide; that's a pretty good description of socialism as it is
practiced in the world today.

>>Ah, the benefits. [government abuses deleted]
>
>Yes, the benefits. Do you think you've recieved nothing from the
>government? Police protection, Roads and bridges, protection in the
>workplace, schools, and the network that we now argue on?

If a business is run so poorly that, to remain in existence, it has to
be entirely funded by government subsidies because no one would pay
_voluntarily_ for such shoddy service, then it should be replaced by
companies that depend on satisfying their customers to remain in
business.


--
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Sean Malloy                                  | Xeroxing corrupts.
Navy Personnel Research & Development Center | Free Xeroxing corrupts
San Diego, CA 92152-6800                     | absolutely.
[e-mail]                        |