-----Original Message-----
From: mark@unicorn.com <mark@unicorn.com>
To: extropians@extropy.com <extropians@extropy.com>
Date: 10 December 1998 19:24
Subject: BASICS: Property Rights
>Samael [Samael@dial.pipex.com] wrote:
>>I dispute that the money is yours in the first place.
>
>If you don't believe that your money is yours, please send it all to me
>right now. I'll accept all major currencies and precious metals.
I'll refer you to the post I made about 'property rights'.
And i'll happily post you my £300 pouind overdraft if you really insist :->
>The fundamental problem with this argument is that once you accept it, the
>only basis for ownership is "might makes right".
There is no basis for ownership unless you accept it as a fundamental assumption. If you know differently, I'd be interested to see it. I postualted the use of ownership because society works better when there is ownership (for instance, crop yields in China went up by around 40% when ownership of fields was allowed).
>And if you disagree, what's the difference between my stealing money from
>you at gunpoint and the government doing it?
There is no difference. And there is no difference to you not letting me use your 'property' asnd coming round and taking 'my' property. In both cases you are depriving me of the use of some item.
Samael