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From: renner@uiucdcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: gunpoint
Message-ID: <29200157@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 12-Oct-84 18:19:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.29200157
Posted: Fri Oct 12 18:19:00 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 14-Oct-84 07:05:12 EDT
References: <542@gloria.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:gloria:-54200:uiucdcs:29200157:000:875
Nf-From: uiucdcs!renner    Oct 12 17:19:00 1984

>  > Not everything the government does is extortion.  Some of its 
>  > activities are quite beneficent.  The problem is that those
>  > activities, unless funded entirely by fees, are paid for by 
>  > money taken by force.  
>  
>  So? That's not extortion, because the government does it, and the majority
>  of people in the US support this form of tax collection. The difference
>  between "extortion" and "legitimate use of force" is whether it's done
>  by private individuals or by a democratically elected government.

The difference you point out here is only one of legality.  The act is
the same regardless of whether it's done by individuals acting alone or
individuals acting as an organized mob.  Extortion is, by definition, the
obtaining of a thing from another party by threat of force rather than by
agreement.

Scott Renner
{pur-ee,ihnp4}!uiucdcs!renner