Category: Government (Origin of)

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On the Origin and Nature of Government

George Noga

Neolithic barbarians understood economics better than many of today’s predator class.

On the Origin and Nature of Government

By: George Noga – February 20, 2022

Primitive societies had leaders but no government. Small bands of hunter-gatherers and nomads lived from hand to mouth dependent of the exigencies of the hunt, the bounty of the sea and the caprice of nature; they never generated an economic surplus. They moved from place to place and were not easy targets for predators. Nonetheless, such primitive bands frequently were victimized by roving bandits. However, the bandits, once they had plundered what little booty that was available, moved on to plunder others; after all, there was no incentive for them to remain behind.

All that changed during the Neolithic Revolution when people learned agriculture and created permanent settlements. Now humans generated a regular economic surplus and were more vulnerable to bandits because they had more to plunder and had to remain in one location. Once again, roving bandits came to plunder; however, they were not stupid. There was an incentive for them to stay to plunder permanently. Roving bandits became stationary bandits, forcefully subjugating the populus and keeping out other bandits. They had a monopoly of the use of force and, bingo, government was born.

A regular economic surplus is an a piori condition for the existence of a state; hence, government cannot exist without entrepreneurs. Without those who accumulate capital, take risks and create things people need or want, government could not exist. Even the earliest farmers had to build capital to support their families while the crops were grown and they had to overcome many risks such as weather and pestilence. Meanwhile, the now permanent bandits did nothing constructive and even imposed obstacles to productivity; they also took a big chunk for themselves.

There is little difference in principle between the stationary bandits of yore and today’s governing class. Instead of kings and emperors, they now call themselves presidents and prime ministers. They both have a monopoly on the legal use of force; they both hinder production; they both take a large share for themselves; and they both are permanent. The difference is that, instead of conquest, today’s rulers achieve power by guile, ersatz promises, lies, bribery and pitting people against each other.

Even today, we might be better off governed by Neolithic barbarians wearing animal skins. At least they understood that government does not create wealth and that things had to be produced before they could be plundered. They understood that imposing regulations and creating obstacles and uncertainty reduced the amount of plunder. Some of the barbarians even grasped that plundering less today enabled them to plunder more tomorrow – benefitting both the plunderers and the plundered.

Moreover, the barbarians of yore sometimes got sated and left us alone for awhile. Today’s predator class never gets sated and never leaves us alone.

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Next on February 27th – Socialism and Toilet Paper.

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The Raison d’etre of Government

George Noga

The answer is not more government or even better and wiser government.

The Raison d’etre of Government

By: George Noga – January 23, 2022

Preamble to the US Constitution

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.“

Since the Neolithic Revolution 12,000 years ago, when humans transitioned from nomadic hunter-gatherer clans to settled agricultural societies, people have banded together for security from internal and external threats to their lives, property and liberty. The Declaration of Independence proclaims all men have an unalienable right to life, liberty, and (property) pursuit of happiness. The Constitution, in its preamble above, establishes the raison d’etre for our government as being mostly about security, i.e. justice, domestic tranquility, defense and liberty. Indeed, the social contract between man and the state always has been, first and foremost, about security.

Americans expect government, above everything else, to protect their lives, property and liberty. Progressive government at all levels, national, state and local, is failing in this, the most basic role of government. The Biden Administration is failing to provide for the common defense. Its manifest weakness, on full display in Afghanistan, is an open invitation to Putin, Xi, Kim, Iran and to tyrants everywhere. Moreover, Biden is slashing (real) defense spending as progressives always do when in power. The most potent asset in our defense arsenal is our economy and Biden is weakening it.

Progressives in control of state and local governments refuse to protect citizens and property from mob violence. They defund police, decriminalize larceny, abolish bail, create sanctuary cities and refuse to prosecute serious offenses. They impose gun control to keep citizens from defending themselves and their property from mobs; instead, they prosecute those (McCloskeys, Rittenhouse) who exercise their rights.

Rather than defending Americans’ lives, property and liberty, Biden and his top advisors, all selected based on identity rather than merit, are putting us at greater risk. They are destroying the property and life savings of many Americans by the pernicious inflation they have unleashed. Their profligate spending is hastening the arrival of a debt crisis and a lost generation for our children and our children’s children.

Progressives, and those who enable them, have lost sight of the reason Americans have a government in the first place. It is not for transgender bathrooms, CRT, identity or wokeness. They are placing our lives at risk from both foreign and domestic threats. They are failing to protect our property from criminals, looting and mob violence. They are assaulting our liberty in myriad ways – using the pandemic to abolish our right to assemble, to worship and to be secure in our persons (vaccine mandates).

Ironically, the evils catalogued supra all were promulgated by a form of government most people consider to be among the best in the world and even throughout history. The root cause of our present accursedness is not a failure of government or even bad government – although we presently have both. Rather, it is due simply to immutable human nature and to our government behaving like governments always do.

Indeed, the entire sweep of human history in the 12,000 years since the Neolithic Revolution instructs us that it is foolish to believe people can control government. We can’t; but we can limit it. Dear readers, the answer lies not in better, wiser or even enlightened government. The answer lies in more liberty and less government.

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Our next post January 30th is about taxing billionaires.

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You Didn’t Build That

George Noga

Prehistoric Barbarians and Bandits Knew Better

By: George Noga – December 8, 2012

       The very instant I heard Obama’s infamous “You didn’t build that” statement I knew it was not only wrong but bass ackward. Economic literati understand viscerally that economic activity must precede political activity. However, it took Tom Palmer in “The Origins of State and Government” to provide much of the necessary historical and logical underpinnings to juxtapose economic activity (business) and government.

“Economic means must always precede political means. Nomads and hunter-gatherers never have a government.”

      Palmer’s axiom is that the economic means always must precede the political means. That explains why there never are governments among primitive societies; they have leaders but never a state. Hunter-gatherers and nomads don’t generate enough of an economic surplus to support a permanent predator class. Nevertheless, such societies were victimized by roving bandits (precursors of government) who moved on once they plundered what little was available. There was no reason for them to stay once they pillaged all the meager supplies available. Also, the nomads and hunters were not stationary and not easy targets for predators.

      Everything changed once people settled permanently and established agriculture. Now they generated a constant economic surplus and remained vulnerable in one location. Once again, roving bandits came, pillaged and plundered. However, the bandits were not stupid. They quickly understood and grasped the opportunity. Now there was a reason for them to stay inasmuch as the farmers couldn’t migrate and they could pillage permanently. Hence, roving bandits morphed into stationary bandits who, through sheer force (subjugating the people and keeping out other roving bandits), acquired a monopoly on sanctioned physical violence within a given territory and, viola, government was created.

“Once agriculture was established, roving bandits became stationary bandits enforcing a monopoly on physical violence in a given territory and, viola, government was created.”

     The evolution and causation is clear enough. An economic surplus is an a priori condition for the existence of a state. Indeed, government cannot exist without the entrepreneur class; they have to build it before government can plunder it. Without those who invest, take risks and build businesses (despite hindrance by the state), government wouldn’t have any resources and would not exist. Even the earliest farmers had to invest (plant seeds, tend the crops) and take risks (drought, pestilence, etc.) while the now-permanent bandits did nothing productive.

   It is no different today. Permanent bandits, who now sanctimoniously  go by titles such as  kings, emperors, presidents and prime ministers, plunder billions  through their enforced monopoly on violence. It continues in kleptocracies across the globe; witness Putin and the ill-gotten wealth of Chinese leaders on full display during the sordid Bo Xilai affair. Witness most of Latin and South America, the Caribbean, most of Africa, all of Arabia and all the countries ending in stan. Don’t forget the narcostate of Mexico and significant pockets of Southeast Asia.

“Even authentic bandits in ancient times sometimes understood that pillaging less today enabled them to pillage even more tomorrow – thus benefiting both the pillagers and pillagees.”

   Is America really any different just because our rulers may govern with the pro forma consent of the governed? They may call themselves mayor, governor, congressman or president but they continue to behave like bandits. They enrich themselves in many illicit ways including money, perquisites, preferments, legal exemptions and power. They plunder from the rest of us in reliance on a legal monopoly on violence largely to ensure their reelection and thereby continued membership in the predator class.  And now the chief bandit in all the land has the sheer chutzpah to proclaim that government is the font of all economic success – a notion that even the barbarians of yesteryear would have found absurd. Even they, lacking any education, understood that the plunderers did not help the plundered create their businesses.

     We may be better off with authentic bandits of ancient times, like those in the Capital One commercials.  At least sometimes they got sated and left us alone. And some of them even understood that pillaging less today caused the economy to grow faster such that they could pillage even more tomorrow, thus  benefiting both the pillagers and the pillagees. Were it so in America today. Our current crop of bandits never gets sated and is less enlightened than some of their counterparts who swept into the west from the steppes of Central Asia.