What is a corporation?
Imagine a scenario where a gambling addict enters a casino, he is told that all of his losses will be paid for by the other people in the casino, and he is entitled to keep all of his winnings. The inevitable result of this is that the gambler will accrue more and more wealth, as everyone else in the casino will trend towards going broke. Sound familiar?
A corporation is a legal fiction, created from the laws of a state. It is a piece of paper that is granted "person hood" designed to have the same rights, privileges and liabilities as people. The function of this legal fiction is to create a new entity considered distinct from its members. In practice this allows people to distance themselves from the consequences of their actions and instead dump responsibility upon the legal fiction known as "the corporation". A corporation is not a human, or a group of humans, it cannot be killed or imprisoned.
What is government?
Similar to how a fish that has lived its entire life surrounded by water may never really understand what water is, as it has never experienced "not water". It can also be hard to understand the fundamental nature of that which has existed throughout most human lives, including our own.
In a vague sense an understanding of what government is, can be derived from the things that a government does. But how do we distinguish between a mere group of people and a group of people called a government?. Take for example a group that call themselves politicians, they meet up in a central place and make decisions on policies, compared to an identical group of people who also make decisions on policies but happen to call themselves a book club, a charity, or a website moderator.
Why is it that so many people have such a vocal reaction to the policies of politicians, but a much lesser investment in the decisions any none governmental group of people come to?
The difference is, the book club can not cease your house, rob you of your productive efforts or imprison you for disagreeing with them, at worst they may kick you out of their book club. Leaving you perfectly free to create your own.
Government is the power of controlling a monopoly on the legal use of force within a given geographical area. It is the use of violence.
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