Thank you for your input again smooth, you have clarified my concerns allowing me to reach the conclusion that DASH is indeed 100% not a scam. Dash is just a community that is ruled by a king or dictator. Those who buy DASH are completely at his mercy. And that is OK, because they are free to leave (sell their coins) at any time.
When you define a common word in such a way that virtually nothing qualifies (short of being held up at gunpoint in a back alley), that is a good clue you are defining it in a manner that you invented and not in a manner consistent with standard English.
But in the end it doesn't matter. A scam by any other name will stink just as badly.