Another strange notion pervading whole peoples is that the State has money of its own; and nowhere is this absurdity more firmly fixed than in America. The State has no money. It produces nothing. It existence is purely parasitic, maintained by taxation; that is to say, by forced levies on the production of others. 'Government money,' of which one hears so much nowadays, does not exist; there is no such thing.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the misconception that the state has its own money, arguing instead that it derives resources solely from taxation on individuals' production.
In this quote, Albert J. Nock challenges the common belief that government has a source of money independent of its citizens. He argues that the state is fundamentally dependent on the productive efforts of its people and that its existence relies on the extraction of resources through taxation, thus portraying the government as a parasitic entity rather than a creator of wealth.
In practice
This quote can be used in discussions about tax policy and government spending.
There are two methods, or means, and only two, whereby man's needs and desires can be satisfied. One is the production and exchange of wealth; this is the economic means. The other is the uncompensated appropriation of wealth produced by others; this is the political means.
Taking the State wherever found, striking into its history at any point, one sees no way to differentiate the activities of its founders, administrators and beneficiaries from those of a professional-criminal class.
The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.
It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own.
The primary reason for a tariff is that it enables the exploitation of the domestic consumer by a process indistinguishable from sheer robbery.
As a general principle, I should put it that a man's country is where the things he loves are most respected. Circumstances may have prevented his ever setting foot there, but it remains his country.
The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.
the masses are everywhere they know how to do things: they have sane and deadly angers for sane and deadly things.
Money for me has only one sound: liberty.
A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.
There is an awful warmth about my heart like a load of immortality.
If we look for human frailty in humans, we will always find it. When we focus on finding the frailties of those who hold priesthood keys, we run risks for ourselves. When we speak or write to others of such frailties, we put them at risk.
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