4 ms·

Whence comes this wealth? Government is not a wealth-creating enterprise. It's (arguably, entirely; verifiably, primarily) in the wealth redistribution busine

• fnid2 17y ago
  The wealth comes from within the borders of a given country. Government might not be in the business of creating wealth, but it is in the business of controlling who gets to be within its geographical borders. If you look throughout history, it's never really worked out well to allow a rich minority to determine what happens to people and the land. Since time immemorial, a rich few have been abusing the property rights of others. Even America was founded by a rich minority who took the wealth of the land from the majority incumbents. It's the same thing as always.
  • dtby 17y ago
    Without arguing the points above one way or another: Unless I misread your initial message, you suggested that the government was not "taking" wealth from anyone, but rather it somehow had "surplus" wealth to be distributed. My question is more finely tuned to "where did this 'surplus' wealth come from, if it was not 'taken' from someone at some point?"
    • fnid2 17y ago
      You could say it was taken from the native americans. Indigenous people or that it was in the ground, the result of decayed dinosaurs and random locations of minerals and plants and weather.