Did you all read the same quote as I did or are you drawing from it what you want. Paine is simply saying money, property, goods and services mean nothing without a society behind oneself. Now he uses the desert island or even continent statement where a man is completely alone. Obviously in this situation your money doesn't mean crap and property is an imaginary concept since you don't have to share it with anybody. It's a pretty simple point and has nothing to do with communism.

For example in a "limited" society which doesn't value property as a concept or tries to say that all services are equal. These societies attempt to use currency and capital as an equalizer. However, ignoring the historical flaws of such systems let us look simply upon the fact that it is false. Property is still possessed even if only by the state because property and ownership is a inherent human concept. And services are not equal. The doctor is of greater value than the manual laborer the officer is of greater value than the private, so on and so forth. You can say this is false but at the end of the day certain factors seperate such individuals from their peers regardless of money.

Anyway all Paine is saying is that without society none of these things are relevant or in any way achievable. I do not hear many free marketers and libertarians screaming about getting rid of society and placing each of us on our own "desert islands". Nobody is denying the fact that society is important. Most people aren't arguing that we shouldn't be paying taxes back to the nation. You will notice that he does not say how many taxes an individual should pay.

Regardless I am not sure if you have read agrarian Justice before? Needless to say after this the man essentially says the government should safeguard mens wealth because poor people are stupid and willwaste it.

Personally I think the man was writing to instigate the french.

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