Off topic? It was in reference to this part of a post in this thread. I believe.
My apologies. It did appear to me though that we were going to get into a discussion of money.
The constitution of the USA was written in such a way that the people would legally be able to overthrow tyrants - hence the right to bear arms. That Americans have allowed tyrants to take over the system is no fault of the "theory" of the constitution, nor of the basic legal premise that the government can in no way own the people. That it does do so is unconstitutional and illegal.
In South African the constitution rules big time. The government have tried to pass a number of laws and were sued in the constitutional court. 6 times in a row the President has been the defendant and 6 times in a row the court has thrown out the legislation. (He's more than slightly miffed). Even with all the power at the government's disposal, they can in no way be seen to own the people, even though in the end, we are all slaves to the economic powers and the system.
In the US more and more laws are being passed to curtail the rights of the population to challenge the government so yes, in that sense the government owns the people. The various states could very well declare Sovereignty at some stage. Now that
will be an interesting development. :)