Excerpts of Legal Plunder & “THE LAW” by Bastiat
This article as seen on the front page of The Liberty Voice was sponsored by: Craig Schweitzer for Ohio State Representative, 2nd District
But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.
Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law — which may be an isolated case — is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.
The person who profits from this law will complain bitter-ly, defending his acquired rights. He will claim that the state is obligated to protect and encourage his particular industry; that this procedure enriches the state because the protected industry is thus able to spend more and to pay higher wages to the poor workingmen.
Do not listen to this sophistry by vested interests. The acceptance of these arguments will build legal plunder into a whole system.
The Choice Before Us
This question of legal plunder must be settled once and for all, and there are only three ways to settle it: We must make our choice among limited plunder, universal plunder, and no plunder. The law can follow only one of these three.
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