Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 Apollo 1/28/85; site apollo.uucp Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxb!mhuxn!mhuxm!mhuxj!houxm!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!wanginst!apollo!dineen From: dineen@apollo.uucp (Terence H Dineen) Newsgroups: net.politics.theory Subject: legal by definition Message-ID: <24bb0e6d.264c@apollo.uucp> Date: Tue, 12-Feb-85 12:09:11 EST Article-I.D.: apollo.24bb0e6d.264c Posted: Tue Feb 12 12:09:11 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 13-Feb-85 07:34:56 EST Organization: Apollo Computer, Chelmsford, Mass. Lines: 34 > ... If we accept Carnes' ideas, that taxation > isn't theft because it is legal, then the government cannot steal: > whatever it does is legal by definition (or can be easily enough made so). In principle, a government can make anything legal; as a matter of practical fact, it is not always easy. And the more contrary to the sentiments of the governed the harder it will be to enact a law or, at least, to enforce it. I know that this fact provides no ironclad guarantee that nothing bad will be done by governments but nothing can provide such a guarantee because a) such a guarantee is not well defined and b) you can't redesign human nature and what we've got is (tragically) what we've got. > ... > I claim this is a useless distinction: we want to concern ourselves > with whether the government is *doing wrong* when it performs these > actions, whether or not it bothered to pass a law making them "legal" > ahead of time. If I may express an opionion, the question of whether governments (or any one else) is "doing wrong" is not obviously meaningful and not of much practical import; at least, whether something is "legal" has some (though often horribly imperfect) correlation with common sentiment. > ... > Is taxation theft? If "might makes right", then no. Otherwise, > one defending taxation as *morally* right must give better support > for the legitimacy of a government. Might does not make right because there is no "right"; governments are natural phenonena - they arise quite independenty of moral philosophy. > --JoSH Terry Dineen