(urth) Urth Digest, Vol 57, Issue 16

[Daniel D Jones]

On Monday 18 May 2009 17:29:58 David Stockhoff wrote:
> And finally, I agree with your quoted description of socialism. But it
> clearly has nothing to do with robbing anyone. Governments redistribute
> wealth all the time.

Do you think that because it's done under the blessing of governmental 
authority it's any less a taking by force than were it the act of a 
highwayman?  And the assertion that "it's done all the time" is quite 
orthogonal to the issue of whether or not it's justified.

> Did you know that usury, which has been illegal since
> the Byzantine emperors, is now legal in the US? It's called "payday loans."
> They are illegal for a reason---and the government that can create them and
> make them legal, thus imposing and enforcing them on the poor, can reverse
> that to create a more just system. Incrementally speaking, that's
> socialism.

What sort of doublespeak is this?  In what way did the government create them?  
In what way is the government imposing or enforcing them on the poor?  Are 
there government agents going out into neighborhoods forcing people to take 
payday loans?