The Problem of Looting: Theft by Government

Mike Rozeff reports on theft:

It is equally clear that no state will allow mass numbers of its citizens to opt out. This implies that many people are being looted against their wills by their own government. A recent example of this is the massive government $750 billion measure called the Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that involves the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP.) A super-majority of Americans was against this program, but Congress passed it nonetheless. Since the involuntary taking of one’s property is what looting is, this program evidently involves massive looting.

The Wall Street Journal editorializes that "We supported TARP as a way to prevent a financial meltdown...TARP has since become a cash pool for all and sundry..." The writers failed to understand that government is born to be bad because it often uses its monopoly to create commons problems. When there is an organization such as the state that has access to vast amounts of money, pools it, and redistributes it, and when the controls over this process are weak, the opportunities for looting rise exponentially.

We are told in 2009 that we the people must pay to repair ailing and failing banks because the economy depends on the credit they provide. This is the gun held to our heads by government propagandists. The gun is a threat, but it is only a threat because we do not have liberty and monetary freedom. We are entangled within the existing monopoly arrangement. In reality, credit is not difficult to produce. It is not only within the arcane province of a few large and favored banks. It is clear that these have not done a very good job of it anyway. Anyone can produce credit, and that credit often can be used as a medium of exchange. Had we liberty, Wal-Mart and other retailers would jump into this in an instant if given the chance. So might many local and regional banks that have sounder balance sheets than the giants that are the beneficiaries of government. Had we liberty, we would rapidly evolve new credit providers. The existing system of forced and monopoly money upon which much credit is based would rapidly give way to competing methods of clearing accounts and exchanging goods and services. We should be looking toward dismantling the Fed and allowing anyone, including banks, to issue their own notes. Let competition in money and credit become the order of the day and the problems of general inflation and deflation will recede. Until we do that, we will be held hostage by the central banking system and subjected to looting from that source and the government to which it is allied.

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