> The proposal of Marxists is that they take things away by force.
Capitalism is not possible without state application of force and coersion.
Consider land ownership, for instance. It is completely predicated on the use of force. The only reason you 'own' your land, is because someone a long time back used force to take it away from someone else (Or, if they were the original settler, used force to take it away from the commons).
"Ah, but now that we've divided all the land into various lots that people own, we can divorce ourselves from the original use of force! Going forward, we won't use violence to secure new ownership of land!"
Well, under Marxism, after a one-time use of force, whereupon productive property is transferred to the ownership of the state, it can also divorce itself from the original use of force. After all, going forward, it won't need to use force to seize productive property, either - because it will already have an owner - the state.
All ownership requires force. Ownership of personal property typically requires a continuous personal application of force. Ownership of private property (Land, productive enterprises, etc) requires a continuous application of state force.
Capitalism is not possible without state application of force and coersion.
Consider land ownership, for instance. It is completely predicated on the use of force. The only reason you 'own' your land, is because someone a long time back used force to take it away from someone else (Or, if they were the original settler, used force to take it away from the commons).
"Ah, but now that we've divided all the land into various lots that people own, we can divorce ourselves from the original use of force! Going forward, we won't use violence to secure new ownership of land!"
Well, under Marxism, after a one-time use of force, whereupon productive property is transferred to the ownership of the state, it can also divorce itself from the original use of force. After all, going forward, it won't need to use force to seize productive property, either - because it will already have an owner - the state.
All ownership requires force. Ownership of personal property typically requires a continuous personal application of force. Ownership of private property (Land, productive enterprises, etc) requires a continuous application of state force.
Force is a red herring.