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0 pointsrobertlagrant2y ago0 comments

You need swords to remove kings because they combined power and economy. All potential tyrannies do so: monarchy, socialism, fascism, etc. That's why separating power into the state and economy into the market gets good results.

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whelp_242y ago

The separation is impossible, if you don't control the resources, you don't control the country.

>separating power into the state and economy into the market gets good results.

How do you think this would be done? How do you remove power from money? Money is literally the ability to convert numbers into labor, land, food,

robertlagrantOP2y ago

Power is things like: can lock someone in a box due to them not giving a percentage of their income; can send someone to die in another country; can stop someone building somewhere; can demand someone's money as a penalty for an infraction of a rule you wrote.

You don't need money for those things.

Money (in a market) can buy you things, but only things people are willing to sell. You don't exert power; you exchange value.

whelp_242y ago

Money can and does do all of those things. Through regulatory capture, rent seeking, even just good old hiring goons.

The government itself uses money to do those things. Police don't work for free, prisons aren't built for free, guns aren't free. The government can be thought of as having unfathomable amounts of money. The assets of a country includes the entire country (less anyone with enough money to defend it).

If a sword is kinetic energy, money is potential energy. It is a battery that only needs to be connected to the right place to be devastating. And money can buy you someone who knows the right place.

Governments have power because they have resources (money) not the other way around.

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whelp_242y ago

The separation is impossible, if you don't control the resources, you don't control the country.

>separating power into the state and economy into the market gets good results.

How do you think this would be done? How do you remove power from money? Money is literally the ability to convert numbers into labor, land, food,

robertlagrantOP2y ago

You don't need money for those things.

Money (in a market) can buy you things, but only things people are willing to sell. You don't exert power; you exchange value.

whelp_242y ago

Money can and does do all of those things. Through regulatory capture, rent seeking, even just good old hiring goons.

If a sword is kinetic energy, money is potential energy. It is a battery that only needs to be connected to the right place to be devastating. And money can buy you someone who knows the right place.

Governments have power because they have resources (money) not the other way around.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse