>From The Law by Frederic Bastiat: How to Identify Legal Plunder
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 bitterly, 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. In fact, this has already occurred. The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it. --- In [email protected], "sasan.sadat" <sasan.sa...@...> wrote: > > I recently had a spirited debate with one of my friends in which she asserted > that I was "selfish" for not wanting to pay taxes. > > My response was this: "Call me selfish if you want to, but at least I'm not > the one forcing my will onto others at gunpoint. Which is worse?" > > She responded "it's not 'force' as long as the majority agrees." > > I asked her "why?". > > She couldn't answer me. > > Checkmate. > > ---Sasan >
