While your argument can be applied in a sense to federal reserve notes, it in no way applies to actual _wealth_. Imagine two people on a deserted island. One fi

While your argument can be applied in a sense to federal reserve notes, it in no way applies to actual _wealth_. Imagine two people on a deserted island. One finds a gold nugget. Both occupants value gold. The one with the gold possesses wealth. This idea of wealth is about as close to an independent, absolute concept as anything I can imagine. Can anyone point out to a single culture or people group where this was not the case? Could the discoverer of gold in any way owe his discovery to the existence of "government"? The ideas of property and wealth are ingrained in us from birth. The idea that anyone, whether government or individual, can take away property by force is morally questionable at best.