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From: fischer@cornell.UUCP (Charles Fischer)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Property, who owns what?
Message-ID: <6448@cornell.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Feb-84 18:04:41 EST
Article-I.D.: cornell.6448
Posted: Thu Feb 23 18:04:41 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 24-Feb-84 02:38:25 EST
References: <685@ihuxq.UUCP> <308@tty3b.UUCP>, <601@bbncca.ARPA>
Organization: Cornell Computer Science
Lines: 33

Mike Kelly makes it clear why Leftists are so mistrusted. Someone actually
had the temerity to suggest that an individual owns the wealth he creates,
and hence may object to forced transfers of wealth.
Kelly's reply?

>  That got me thinking about what determines what belongs to whom.  To me,
>  all that determines that is state policy.  In other words, there is no
>  private property unless the state decides that there is private property.
>  The state does not taketh; it giveth.

So 1984 has arrived! You only own what the state says you do, and if you
object, it's up against the wall!
He further goes on to depict an evil factory owner (a capitalist, no doubt).

>  But consider a factory owner.   Why does HE own
>  the product of that factory, produced by the labor of hundreds of workers?
>  Simple: because the state conspires with him to prevent anyone from taking
>  it.

It appears that laws against theft are a Capitalist plot. But wait! In that
revered workers paradise, theft of state property merits the DEATH PENALITY.
It must be that stealing from the state is a vile crime, but stealing from
factory owners is an innate right of the proletariat.
One problem though! Factories are owned by shareholders, and the majority of
all stock is held by institutions and pension funds (i.e., ordinary people).
Thus we come full circle. Stealing from the people's state is evil,
but stealing from the people is not!

Kelly concludes with masterful logic

>  So the "this is mine and the state is extorting it from me" attitude makes
>  me laugh.  Try and hold on to it if the state weren't around to protect you
>  from rioting workers.