[okie01]

Robin Hood took back from the rich what they had stolen from the poor. Not an inconsiderable difference from today’s socialist policies.

Whoa!

Robin Hood took from the king (i.e., the government) what they had stolen from the poor.

The furthest thing from socialism...

[Sherman Logan]

The whole point about feudalism is that the rich were the government. Or perhaps that "the government" were the rich. Economic power grew out of political power. This is actually the norm in human history.

Sometimes I think the resentment of modern capitalism is based on its unique divorce and/or reversal of these roles. In today's America, political power to a considerable extent grows out of economic power, and those who are (or think they should be) in control of political power resent the hell out of it.

[Sherman Logan]

Robin Hood took from the king (i.e., the government) what they had stolen from the poor.

Actually, in the legend RH stole from the rich lords who were oppressing the people and were simultaneously plotting against the King (Richard, that is). The leader of "the rich" in this story was Prince John, who was regent for his brother Richard.

In reality, the reason for the oppressive taxation was to pay Richard's ransom. He'd managed to get himself captured while on his way back from Crusade. That and to pay for the Crusade itself, which of course was not even vaguely in the national interest of the English people, but was glory-seeking by Richard.

The amount of the ransom was 65,000 pounds of silver, about 3x the normal annual income of the Crown. It's as if someone held Obama captive and we had to pay $6 trillion to get him back.