WEBVTT NOTE The Nature of Government 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 The Nature of Government 2 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:13.000 There are a number of areas of human endeavor and human behavior wherein a certain amount of ignorance continues to manifest. 3 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:17.000 And one of these areas is the area relating to government. 4 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.000 Normally people don't really understand it. 5 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:25.000 They haven't taken the time to study it, to understand what it can do and what it cannot do. 6 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:39.000 And the consequence is that they tend to become superstitious about it. They imagine that it can do certain things that it cannot do, and that it can be prevented from doing certain things that it can do. 7 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:51.000 And hence they tend to erect a kind of mythology around it, imagining certain things about it which aren't true, never have been true, and probably never will be true. 8 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:58.840 So it behooves us to examine this peculiar agency of government to find out what it is, 9 00:00:58.840 --> 00:01:06.080 and what in fact it can do and cannot do. Apparently, what is first important would 10 00:01:06.080 --> 00:01:12.480 be a definition. We need to define government so that we understand it, and let me give 11 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:19.160 you a definition that is as precise as I know how to make it. I would define government 12 00:01:19.160 --> 00:01:29.440 as a group of men who sell retributive justice to the inhabitants of a limited geographic 13 00:01:29.440 --> 00:01:37.080 area at monopolistic prices. In other words, what I am saying is that government is a group 14 00:01:37.080 --> 00:01:47.540 of men, and that they function by doing certain things for other people, implied in the doing 15 00:01:47.540 --> 00:01:54.940 of These Things is the use of compulsion. All governments are based on force of some 16 00:01:54.940 --> 00:02:01.300 kind, either the suggestion that force can and will be used, or the actual application 17 00:02:01.300 --> 00:02:08.300 of force in use. Now, in order to understand what I mean by that definition, we have to 18 00:02:08.300 --> 00:02:14.460 look behind it to see exactly what is being said. When I say that government is a group 19 00:02:14.460 --> 00:02:16.900 of Man. 20 00:02:16.900 --> 00:02:23.260 Then I am presuming that there will be a selected group of men, taken out of the population 21 00:02:23.260 --> 00:02:27.420 generally, who will be clad in these robes. 22 00:02:27.420 --> 00:02:33.760 They will become a special elite group that we think of as governmental people. 23 00:02:33.760 --> 00:02:38.280 That is, they are a part of this agency, whereas other people are not. 24 00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:43.100 I might point out in passing that probably one of the great myths that we believe in 25 00:02:43.100 --> 00:02:48.900 in this country is that the population at large is the government. Now that of course 26 00:02:48.900 --> 00:02:55.980 is really an absurdity. The population at large comprises the governed, those who are 27 00:02:55.980 --> 00:03:03.220 imposed upon. It is that limited number of persons who have been drawn out of the population 28 00:03:03.220 --> 00:03:09.940 generally and have been converted into an elite group that is the government. The government 29 00:03:09.940 --> 00:03:14.980 disposes and the people are disposed of, as well as their earnings. 30 00:03:14.980 --> 00:03:17.500 So that is the difference. 31 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:20.460 That's one of the most important myths we have to deal with. 32 00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:27.780 The assumption that simply because you have the opportunity of voting, if you do, that 33 00:03:27.780 --> 00:03:34.020 that in itself makes you a member of the ruling elite. 34 00:03:34.020 --> 00:03:35.920 Actually that is not true. 35 00:03:35.920 --> 00:03:42.000 The fact that you vote does not place power in your hands, it merely grants you a momentary 36 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:46.380 choice relating to the person who is going to have the power. 37 00:03:46.380 --> 00:03:53.180 And although it is admitted, of course, frankly, that the population at large could change 38 00:03:53.180 --> 00:04:00.540 rulers, there is nothing in the arrangement that permits the population at large to rule. 39 00:04:00.540 --> 00:04:09.200 The idea is simply, if you can imagine this analogy, imagine a group of persons, each 40 00:04:09.200 --> 00:04:13.660 one in his respective cell, in a large penitentiary. 41 00:04:13.660 --> 00:04:19.420 And every four years these persons in the penitentiary get to elect their warden. 42 00:04:19.420 --> 00:04:24.580 And because they get to elect their warden, it is said to them that they are really running 43 00:04:24.580 --> 00:04:26.260 the penitentiary. 44 00:04:26.260 --> 00:04:30.020 But the fact is they never get the keys to their cell, so they remain in them. 45 00:04:30.020 --> 00:04:35.660 Now that's in essence the political formula that we have adopted under the democratic 46 00:04:35.660 --> 00:04:44.080 banner, which is that we imagine that we have power when in point of fact it is others who 47 00:04:44.080 --> 00:04:50.520 have been granted a kind of power over us. And that power is manifested primarily in 48 00:04:50.520 --> 00:04:57.800 the seeking of a kind of retroactive justice. That's really what it's all about. 49 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:02.880 Now while we're examining government and of course one of the areas we will want to take 50 00:05:02.880 --> 00:05:12.160 up will deal with the processes whereby this power is bestowed. Where does it come from? 51 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:17.800 Now that's something we want to develop more fully as we go on. But while we take up this 52 00:05:17.800 --> 00:05:26.000 area we should examine the nature of politics because we tend to relate the word politics 53 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:27.000 to Government. 54 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:31.920 Actually, the word politics has a number of usages, and they are all quite correct. 55 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:37.120 It's just important that we understand each other so that you know what I mean when I 56 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:43.640 use the term politics, and I would like to specify that politics, as I am going to use 57 00:05:43.640 --> 00:05:47.880 it here, will be a method. 58 00:05:47.880 --> 00:05:51.880 Some people call it an art, and some people call it a science. 59 00:05:51.880 --> 00:05:57.400 I don't think politics is either an art or a science, but I will call it a method or 60 00:05:57.400 --> 00:06:06.800 a procedure, a way of doing things, that politics then is a method by means of which a monopoly 61 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:15.360 of power can be obtained or maintained. All governments deal in monopolies. There is no 62 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:21.120 such thing as any other kind of government, and there never has been. All governments 63 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:26.040 Methods are concerned with preserving the status quo and with providing a monopoly of 64 00:06:26.040 --> 00:06:31.360 force in the hands of a limited number. That's the whole idea. 65 00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:40.360 Now, the methods whereby this monopoly is obtained or maintained, actually the methods 66 00:06:40.360 --> 00:06:46.680 are academic. There are any number of ways that it can happen. Possibly the best discourse 67 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:54.520 on the subject was provided by a man named Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote about it during 68 00:06:54.520 --> 00:07:01.760 the Italian Renaissance. His definitive work in the area is entitled The Prince, and I 69 00:07:01.760 --> 00:07:10.240 recommend it if you haven't read it. So far as I know, the statements made by Machiavelli 70 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:16.400 in the book The Prince have never really been contravened or contradicted substantially. 71 00:07:16.400 --> 00:07:23.200 He does state the case pretty frankly, and if you're interested in that sort of thing, 72 00:07:23.200 --> 00:07:29.920 I'll recommend the book to you. In any case, politics is a method whereby monopolies of 73 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:36.160 force are obtained, and government is the structure wherein these monopolies of force 74 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:44.120 will be utilized primarily for the purpose of obtaining a kind of retroactive justice. 75 00:07:44.120 --> 00:07:52.920 Now that's the idea of government. Sometimes people presume that any use of force at all 76 00:07:52.920 --> 00:08:00.280 is government. And you can make a fairly good case for that. And if you do, then we could 77 00:08:00.280 --> 00:08:06.240 say that government, like taxes, has always been with us. But I'm going to specify that 78 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:14.100 there are certain prerequisites to government that make a use of force per se not totally 79 00:08:14.100 --> 00:08:21.540 be applicable. That is, I will contend that force can arise in a non-government situation 80 00:08:21.540 --> 00:08:27.840 and that it isn't government. It is just force. For example, I will contend that if 81 00:08:27.840 --> 00:08:34.780 a man approaches you with a gun and threatens you with that weapon, that that does not make 82 00:08:34.780 --> 00:08:43.740 make him your government at the time. It may cause him to influence your actions. And doubtless 83 00:08:43.740 --> 00:08:49.860 that is exactly what he would do. But the fact is that he is not a government agent 84 00:08:49.860 --> 00:08:56.220 necessarily. If he is a government agent threatening you with a gun, then he would have received 85 00:08:56.220 --> 00:09:06.500 A special type of licensing that would enable him to carry the gun as a sanctioned representative 86 00:09:06.500 --> 00:09:11.300 of the agency, and that is the thing that comprises government. 87 00:09:11.300 --> 00:09:18.080 Government has certain prerequisites for it to exist, which if not present, although it 88 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:24.780 may not eliminate the use of force, nonetheless eliminates government as an agency per se. 89 00:09:24.780 --> 00:09:31.100 Let me list these prerequisites of government and discuss them briefly so that we understand 90 00:09:31.100 --> 00:09:39.380 what they are. There are four of them that appear constantly throughout history, and 91 00:09:39.380 --> 00:09:47.060 if all four are not present, then you do not have government as such. 92 00:09:47.060 --> 00:09:52.220 The first prerequisite, the first factor that you must have if you are to have a government, 93 00:09:52.220 --> 00:10:01.380 is a person or possibly a small group of persons who are ready, willing and able to constitute 94 00:10:01.380 --> 00:10:08.380 themselves the ruler or rulers of everyone else. In other words, to have a government 95 00:10:08.380 --> 00:10:16.020 you begin by finding someone who is willing to act as the titular head of that government. 96 00:10:16.020 --> 00:10:22.420 This is the easiest factor to find. In all the history of man, we have never had any 97 00:10:22.420 --> 00:10:28.120 shortage here. There have always been those who were ready, willing, and able to stand 98 00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:35.220 forward and say, I would make a good ruler. There has never been a dearth of this, unfortunately, 99 00:10:35.220 --> 00:10:43.940 but that would be a prerequisite. If you didn't have, for any reason, if by some process that 100 00:10:43.940 --> 00:10:50.540 That type of person didn't appear. You couldn't have a government. You have to have this individual 101 00:10:50.540 --> 00:10:57.380 emerge who somehow fancies himself to be better than other people, to feel that his opinions 102 00:10:57.380 --> 00:11:04.060 are more valid than other people's, and to feel this strongly enough to be ready, willing 103 00:11:04.060 --> 00:11:10.200 and able to employ force to make his opinions accepted. You see, otherwise there would be 104 00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:17.960 If he thinks his opinions can be sold and people would voluntarily accept them, then 105 00:11:17.960 --> 00:11:19.220 he wouldn't need a government. 106 00:11:19.220 --> 00:11:23.920 He could simply communicate his ideas and people would accept them. 107 00:11:23.920 --> 00:11:26.440 But he doesn't think that they're that good. 108 00:11:26.440 --> 00:11:33.560 So he doubts his ability to communicate successfully, and rather he relies on force. 109 00:11:33.560 --> 00:11:38.200 And that is the reason why he believes that, one, his opinions are more important than 110 00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:43.640 and other people's opinions, and two, he can't sell them. Therefore, there is only one way 111 00:11:43.640 --> 00:11:48.720 of getting them across, and that's to have power behind him. And so, such a man would 112 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:55.000 be the natural candidate for a ruler. Now, whether you are to call him a king or an emperor 113 00:11:55.000 --> 00:12:01.200 or a president or a czar or a dictator or a tyrant or whatever, this is academic. The 114 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:09.520 The point is that he is constituting himself as being someone above everyone else. 115 00:12:09.520 --> 00:12:13.520 We'll have more to say about rulers after a bit. 116 00:12:13.520 --> 00:12:22.140 Now the second factor that must appear, the second prerequisite to government, is an extremely 117 00:12:22.140 --> 00:12:24.440 important point. 118 00:12:24.440 --> 00:12:29.640 It seems very obvious, and because it is so obvious, we tend not to spend enough time 119 00:12:29.640 --> 00:12:59.640 The Theory of Money and Credit 120 00:12:59.640 --> 00:13:29.640 and then it succeeds only after a long period of time where this second factor appears. Finally, if for example a military force conquers a territory and then imposes rule by force on that territory, this becomes a kind of military control but it is not government. It is simply military control and it will continue to demand absolute suppression of every 121 00:13:29.640 --> 00:13:59.640 In the early Roman days the Romans experimented with this and began to make a very important discovery and that was that when they conquered a neighboring territory and imposed rule from Rome, the people simply submitted because there was nothing else that they could do, but they were constantly in a state of revolt so that you could never get anything done in that process. 122 00:13:59.640 --> 00:14:06.640 of Money, The Theory of Money and State, The Theory of Money and State, The Theory 123 00:14:29.640 --> 00:14:36.720 Government, because at this point the people would then submit to the government because 124 00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:43.840 they would feel that they had someone representing them and therefore it wasn't really a military 125 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:49.160 despotism, it was a government in fact that would represent their wishes. 126 00:14:49.160 --> 00:14:54.840 So this is the thing that has to be obtained if you are to have a government in fact. 127 00:14:54.840 --> 00:15:01.640 It is the difference between a rule by bandits per se and by a governing body, and this is 128 00:15:01.640 --> 00:15:08.420 a very important point. I can think of no phrase better than the one that Ayn Rand used 129 00:15:08.420 --> 00:15:14.480 in her very important novel Atlas Shrugged. She said here, she came up with this phrase 130 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:21.360 and it's a happy one because it defines precisely what is involved, she said, the sanction of 131 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:29.720 of the Victim. And that's an extremely precise way of stating what I'm getting at. In order 132 00:15:29.720 --> 00:15:36.480 for a government to exist, in fact, it not only must have the exclusive use of force, 133 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:43.400 it must have a sanctioned use of force. That's the thing that makes a government. Force could 134 00:15:43.400 --> 00:15:50.420 crop up anywhere among men. Men are prone to employ it. But to have a government you 135 00:15:50.420 --> 00:15:58.700 You have to have a particular type of force at work, a type of force which is given broad 136 00:15:58.700 --> 00:16:05.700 public approval even by the people who are to be victimized by the use of the force. 137 00:16:05.700 --> 00:16:11.260 And that's the characteristic. The difference between a government and non-government employment 138 00:16:11.260 --> 00:16:19.700 of force is the legal sanction that accompanies force in government hands. That's the characteristic. 139 00:16:19.700 --> 00:16:26.300 And without that you may have force, but it is not government. It is simply an erratic 140 00:16:26.300 --> 00:16:33.200 or a sporadic force that is employed by some over others, and it is a kind of militarism, 141 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:38.700 and it will serve to suppress people, but it will not serve to release them. 142 00:16:38.700 --> 00:16:46.100 Let me make another analogy so that that point is really grasped. It is in effect the difference 143 00:16:46.100 --> 00:16:51.860 Between Having a Prisoner and Having a Slave 144 00:16:51.860 --> 00:16:59.020 If you have a prisoner, he is an economic liability. He does not have to produce anything. 145 00:16:59.020 --> 00:17:05.500 Characteristically, he will be confined and suppressed. And that's that. A population 146 00:17:05.500 --> 00:17:12.060 that has been placed under military despotism, in essence, is a population prisoner to that 147 00:17:12.060 --> 00:17:19.880 and despotism, and that is not a government. Now, if that population can be converted into 148 00:17:19.880 --> 00:17:26.440 willing workers under the despotism, then you have created a condition of slavery as 149 00:17:26.440 --> 00:17:33.280 opposed to a condition of imprisonment. In other words, that is the standard relationship 150 00:17:33.280 --> 00:17:41.160 between a population and its government. The people in the population continue to work, 151 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:56.160 is a modified relationship of the slave-slave master condition. If it becomes oppressive, then it, in fact, simply goes to the point where the choices of the individuals are reduced constantly until the people are virtualized. 152 00:17:56.160 --> 00:18:16.160 If it becomes oppressive, then it in fact simply goes to the point where the choices of the individuals are reduced constantly until the people are virtually enslaved as the early blacks were enslaved in this country. 153 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:22.160 That is, their choices are virtually wiped out. And that of course would be the fundamental difference. 154 00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:31.280 So the difference then between a governing force over a people and a blind military force 155 00:18:31.280 --> 00:18:37.120 over a people is the difference between the condition of slavery versus the condition 156 00:18:37.120 --> 00:18:43.200 of imprisonment. If you are imprisoned, of course, you can't produce. But if you are 157 00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:50.840 a slave, you can produce, and populations tend to accept a limited amount of slavery which 158 00:18:50.840 --> 00:18:55.600 which makes it possible for them to continue to produce and therefore to exercise some 159 00:18:55.600 --> 00:19:01.640 control over their lives, and they accept that whereas they will not accept imprisonment. 160 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:07.160 So it's an important point to keep in mind as we go ahead with understanding the nature 161 00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:09.080 of government. 162 00:19:09.080 --> 00:19:16.020 Now there's a third point, also very important, one that if it does not exist means that there 163 00:19:16.020 --> 00:19:23.020 There is not a government existing in fact, and this is a point of contact between the 164 00:19:23.020 --> 00:19:31.700 ruler and the ruled. There have been in the history of man any number of instances wherein 165 00:19:31.700 --> 00:19:37.220 there has been a government over a territory, and the people in the territory knew that 166 00:19:37.220 --> 00:19:41.980 they were being governed in a sense, and yet there was no point of contact between the 167 00:19:41.980 --> 00:19:49.880 and the ruler and the ruled. And hence, in point of fact, there was no de facto government. 168 00:19:49.880 --> 00:19:56.600 Now that is a condition that pertained in the United States on two occasions. It pertained 169 00:19:56.600 --> 00:20:02.900 at the outset when we were British colonies. And it related to a great number of the people 170 00:20:02.900 --> 00:20:09.300 who came over here from Britain and elsewhere in the early days of colonization. What happened 171 00:20:09.300 --> 00:20:19.220 was that titularly we were under the government and hence the protection of the King of England. 172 00:20:19.220 --> 00:20:26.820 But in point of fact from 1603 on up to 1760, a period of better than 150 years, the kings 173 00:20:26.820 --> 00:20:33.820 and queens in England became largely indifferent to what was going on in their colonies and 174 00:20:33.820 --> 00:20:40.620 And the consequence was that the hand of control simply wasn't felt in the colonies. 175 00:20:40.620 --> 00:20:46.500 Oh, there were royal governors sent over, but they had a modicum of power and it would 176 00:20:46.500 --> 00:20:52.940 extend only a short distance beyond the particular town in which they made their headquarters. 177 00:20:52.940 --> 00:20:59.220 The vast number of people in the area were setting up farms and establishing villages 178 00:20:59.220 --> 00:21:03.420 and trade of various sorts in rural communities. 179 00:21:03.420 --> 00:21:08.680 And the consequence was the American people were not taxed and they were not regulated 180 00:21:08.680 --> 00:21:09.680 by the state. 181 00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:14.280 But if you ask anyone of them they would say, oh yes, well I'm a loyal subject of His Majesty 182 00:21:14.280 --> 00:21:15.840 the King of England. 183 00:21:15.840 --> 00:21:20.740 And yet they were paying no taxes, they were not being regulated and if anybody said anything 184 00:21:20.740 --> 00:21:25.120 they didn't like, in essence they turned their back on them and went ten miles further west 185 00:21:25.120 --> 00:21:33.400 because we had a territorial freedom by virtue of the fact that we had such a large area 186 00:21:33.400 --> 00:21:40.840 to move into, and the consequence was that in a very real sense there was no contact 187 00:21:40.840 --> 00:21:46.680 between the ruler and the ruled although psychologically the people felt that they were being ruled 188 00:21:46.680 --> 00:21:55.220 all the time. Now that same condition reappeared in the settling of the West where the development 189 00:21:55.220 --> 00:22:04.460 and mining communities and cattle towns and so forth out in the western area went ahead 190 00:22:04.460 --> 00:22:10.020 rapidly beyond the ability of government to come in. So you had, in essence, what was 191 00:22:10.020 --> 00:22:15.260 called the lawless West. There was no law. There were simply people. And, of course, 192 00:22:15.260 --> 00:22:23.340 in spite of television and the modern tendency to dramatize, the lawlessness, ergo the crime 193 00:22:23.340 --> 00:22:29.300 and Corruption of the period. In point of fact, a study of those communities reveals 194 00:22:29.300 --> 00:22:35.740 that there was very little crime until governments began to get in, more substantially. There 195 00:22:35.740 --> 00:22:41.540 were many communities where no such thing occurred. There was no taxes, no regulation, 196 00:22:41.540 --> 00:22:46.180 there probably wasn't even a sheriff. And yet these communities became thriving centers 197 00:22:46.180 --> 00:22:51.240 of business and industry long before the arm of government was established. Now here again 198 00:22:51.240 --> 00:22:59.920 Again you have a case where these people felt themselves to be other than wild-eyed, unruled 199 00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:02.320 anarchists or something of the sort. 200 00:23:02.320 --> 00:23:07.960 They felt themselves to be substantial citizens and future citizens of this country. 201 00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:11.840 But they didn't have a government because there was no point of contact. 202 00:23:11.840 --> 00:23:18.000 There are other instances that could be given, some far more modern than the two I've cited, 203 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:25.600 Wherein whole populations have come out from under a point of contact with their government, 204 00:23:25.600 --> 00:23:32.280 they pay no taxes, they have no officials, in essence they are unruled. Therefore if 205 00:23:32.280 --> 00:23:39.560 you are to have a government de facto, you must have not only the ruler and the sanction 206 00:23:39.560 --> 00:23:45.600 of the victim, but a point of contact between the two, where the force of the one is in 207 00:23:45.600 --> 00:23:53.440 in fact imposed upon the other, and the others accept it. Now that would be those requirements. 208 00:23:53.440 --> 00:23:59.800 There is a fourth prerequisite here that is also of considerable importance, and once 209 00:23:59.800 --> 00:24:05.240 more we don't pay enough attention to it so we don't understand it, and it is time 210 00:24:05.240 --> 00:24:13.840 that we did. In order for any kind of government to exist there must always be an administrative 211 00:24:13.840 --> 00:24:20.960 Elite, to enforce and administer the laws or the rules or the you cases set forth by 212 00:24:20.960 --> 00:24:28.080 that governing body, whatever it may be. Laws do not administer themselves. You could write 213 00:24:28.080 --> 00:24:35.320 law, you could write miles of copy of law every day, and it would be meaningless. The 214 00:24:35.320 --> 00:24:42.480 only thing that is actually meaningful about any written law is the extent to which it 215 00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:48.920 is to be enforced. You could fill libraries with printed laws and they would have no significance 216 00:24:48.920 --> 00:24:54.840 whatever. It is the enforcement arm of government that makes it government in fact. And this 217 00:24:54.840 --> 00:25:03.840 is where the power resides. It is the flexed bicep of the military and the state in combination 218 00:25:03.840 --> 00:25:09.200 that makes it government what it is. And so in order to have a government you have to 219 00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:32.200 It must be a non-productive elite. That is to say, it has to be people who aren't producing anything, because if they were producing anything, they wouldn't have the time to devote to these wasteful processes of trying to enforce rules on everybody else. 220 00:25:32.200 --> 00:25:38.360 And what does that mean? That means that you never have a government, in fact, until the 221 00:25:38.360 --> 00:25:47.160 economy has been built up high enough so that surpluses exist that will support a non-productive 222 00:25:47.160 --> 00:25:54.800 elite. Therefore you don't really have government per se until you have taxation, until you 223 00:25:54.800 --> 00:25:56.800 The Theory of Money and Credit 224 00:26:24.800 --> 00:26:34.440 surpluses produced to make it possible for a non-productive elite to survive. The elite 225 00:26:34.440 --> 00:26:41.800 of the primitive times were simply the chieftains who were best at providing for a livelihood 226 00:26:41.800 --> 00:26:48.120 for the tribal members, and they were looked to and followed because they were able producers. 227 00:26:48.120 --> 00:26:54.780 The political sphere and the sphere of government begins to emerge only when the economy has 228 00:27:24.780 --> 00:27:32.780 Compulsion and Coercion to accomplish this and to obtain the funds by means of which they can get it all done. 229 00:27:33.780 --> 00:27:34.780 Thank you very much.