It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the idea that the State derives its resources and power from the individuals it governs.
Albert J. Nock's quote underscores a critical philosophical perspective on the nature of power and governance. It suggests that authority and resources attributed to the State are not inherent; instead, they are contingent upon the contributions and consent of the people. This reflects the broader principle that any institution's power is ultimately a reflection of the collective will and economic input of its citizens, challenging the conventional understanding of State autonomy.
In practice
During a debate on government funding, one could reference this quote to illustrate the dependence of state power on citizen contributions.
There are two methods, or means, and only two, whereby man's needs and desires can be satisfied. One is the production and exchange of wealth; this is the economic means. The other is the uncompensated appropriation of wealth produced by others; this is the political means.
Taking the State wherever found, striking into its history at any point, one sees no way to differentiate the activities of its founders, administrators and beneficiaries from those of a professional-criminal class.
The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.
Another strange notion pervading whole peoples is that the State has money of its own; and nowhere is this absurdity more firmly fixed than in America. The State has no money. It produces nothing. It existence is purely parasitic, maintained by taxation; that is to say, by forced levies on the production of others. 'Government money,' of which one hears so much nowadays, does not exist; there is no such thing.
The primary reason for a tariff is that it enables the exploitation of the domestic consumer by a process indistinguishable from sheer robbery.
As a general principle, I should put it that a man's country is where the things he loves are most respected. Circumstances may have prevented his ever setting foot there, but it remains his country.
Our nation was not founded because we all looked alike, or prayed alike, or descended from the same family tree. But our founders, in their genius, in this, the oldest constitutional democracy, put forth on this earth the idea that all are created equal; that we all have inalienable rights.
I direct my attention to the individual, to make him strong, to teach him that he himself is divine, and I call upon men to make themselves conscious of this divinity within. That is really the ideal --conscious or unconscious --of every religion.
It is perfectly possible to be enamoured of Paris while remaining totally indifferent or even hostile to the French.
The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man - and the dogma is the drama.
Never does a man know the force that is in him till some mighty affliction or grief has humanized the soul.
Men live their lives trapped in an eternal present, between the mists of memory and the sea of shadow that is all we know of the days to come.
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