&gt; But if the money ever belonged to the individual<p>Nothing belongs to (as distinct from being immediately, physically controlled by) anyone except in the sense that social convention grants them some, usually limited, exclusive control over it.<p>The typical avenue through which that social convention for both the right to control and its limitations is expressed in the modern world is the institution of the State via law (most obviously, property law, but the whole body of law, including tax and other civil and criminal law, addresses either the rights to control or its limitations.)