hal@finney.org wrote:
>
> Michael S. Lorrey, <mlorrey@datamann.com>, wrote:
> > Damien Broderick wrote:
> > >
> > > At 06:38 PM 11/12/00 -0800, samantha wrote:
> > >
> > > >Property is theft from whom? You can['t] steal if no one has any ownership
> > > >rights. :-)
> > >
> > > This standard retort to a snappy slogan (or counter-slogan) entirely avoids
> > > the case being implied.
> >
> > Not at all Damien. It illustrates the syntactical paradox inherent in
> > the statement.
>
> Actually, I think the resolution is that the slogan is short for
> "*private* property is theft", and it envisions the existence of public
> property. Hence theft is perfectly possible, and private property is
> theft from the public.
However, as my later comments state, if it is the public's chosen agent
(i.e. government) which sells/rents/leases that property to individuals,
it is not theft, since the public is getting freely exchanged value for
that property which it wishes to sell.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:50:35 MDT