From: stencil (stencil@bcn.net)
Date: Thu Jul 26 2001 - 13:52:00 MDT
On Thu, 26 Jul 2001 06:10:06 -0600,
in extropians-digest V6 #205
Lee Corbin wrote:
> [ .. ]
>
>I don't know for sure at what moment in U.S. history any government
>began extracting money from its citizens solely to benefit other
>citizens, but it may have been 1913 with the enactment of the Federal
>Income Tax. (Still, I don't know when government charity really began.)
I believe the accepted version of the genesis of modern
{S/s}ocialism is that it began with Frederick I of Prussia
establishing a pension fund for soldiers' widows. Note
that this originally was only for the widows and orphans;
wounded veterans followed later, then long-service
veterans, then... In the US, I believe, an established
Veterans' Pension fund was established only during or
after the Civil War, though I think I've seen reference to
ad hoc legislation to provide annual disbursements to
disabled survivors of the Mexican War.
In the original Evil Empire, long-service veterans were
granted homesteads - colonia - usually well-fertilized
with the blood of previous aboriginal occupants. Those
guys' forbears, it turn, probably had eaten the pooks who
preceeded them.
stencil - contented with Sheila - sends
RKBA!
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