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To: tonyinv
Guess he never read Adam Smith.
16 posted on 01/13/2002 8:39:33 AM PST by Cobra64
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To: Cobra64
Guess he never read Adam Smith.

Not sure what you mean.

... The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions. It is only under the shelter of the civil magistrate that the owner of that valuable property, which is acquired by the labour of many years, or perhaps of many successive generations, can sleep a single night in security. He is at all times surrounded by unknown enemies, whom, though he never provoked, he can never appease, and from whose injustice he can be protected only by the powerful arm of the civil magistrate continually held up to chastise it. The acquisition of valuable and extensive property, therefore, necessarily requires the estabilishment of civil government. Where there is no property, or at least none that exceeds the value of two or three days labour, civil government is not so necessary.
Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations", page 408 in my Oxford World's Classics edition.

Emphasis mine.

So, in other words, in the eyes of Adam Smith, protection of individual property rights is a government program. One could even argue he considers it the government program.

101 posted on 01/13/2002 10:34:45 AM PST by TheOracle
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