Quote of the Day: Origin of the State

The positive testimony of history is that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive, State known to history originated in any other manner. On the negative side, it has been proved beyond peradventure that no primitive State could possibly have had any other origin.s Moreover, the sole invariable characteristic of the State IS the economic exploitation of one class by another. In this sense, every State known to history is a class-State. Oppenheimer defines the State, in respect of its origin, as an institution "forced on a defeated group by a conquering group, with a view only to systematizing the domination of the conquered by the conquerors, and safeguarding itself against insurrection from within and attack from without. This domination had no other final purpose than the economic exploitation of the conquered group by the victorious group."

Albert J. Nock, Our Enemy the State p.44-45

The genesis of government is from violence and plunder, and definitely not an outcome of attempts at resolving market imperfections.