----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Michael Perelman appears horrified by the Smith quotes he reproduces. I think they are quite prescient. So is Smith's acute observation: "It is only under the shelter of the civil magistrate that the owner of the valuable property, which is acquired by the labour of many years, or perhaps of 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" (WN, 2: 232). Look around the world. You will find that societies or countries in which private property is less secure do less well in material wealth accumulation than in those where private property is more secure. And the security of private property extends beyond protection from the thief at night to confiscatory or redistributive taxation and the erosion of wealth through monetary inflation. It seems to me that one needs often to evaluate with real-world experiences statements with which one may feel uncomfortable in order better to appreciate them. Without such evaluations one may continue to be locked up in the idea that capitalism is an evil economic system as compared with one in which the state does the stealing allegedly on behalf of the poor. James C.W. Ahiakpor, Ph.D. California State University, Hayward ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]