Oddbean new post about login | logout I don't understand this "state vs. private" thing. I thought the state is what grants property rights in the first place?
When individuals came together to form a society they gave up a little bit of their freedom to the state which would 1. Govern their collective value in the form of money against counterfeit and debasement and 2. Defend and enforce an individuals property rights against other states and internal robbery via police and army. It was the individuals rights that are meant to be defended by the state. Now it’s reversed and the state enforces its mandates on the individual through violence.
Arguably, labor, luck, and trade are some of the key engines to property accumulation. If anything, force is another factor, which the state subsidizes in exchange for a massive cut, as well as surveillance of you, your family, and everyone, the ability to violate your property rights at any time, and the ability to commit endless atrocities in your name, and on your dime. It's a pretty bad trade. The state then assure you this is the only trade, as it strokes its arsenal of weaponry that you bought it.