"Legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number
of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it:
tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive
taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum
wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit,
and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole—with their common aim
of legal plunder—constitute socialism.
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."
~Frederic Bastiat
Bastiat's Moral Law
ReplyDelete"See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them; and gives it to persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil in itself, but also is a fertile source for further evils, for it invites reprisals. If such a law is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.
-- Frederic Bastiat
Don't forget the "bailouts".
ReplyDelete"We cannot doubt that self-interest is the mainspring of human nature. It must be clearly understood that this word is used here to designate a universal, incontestable fact, resulting from the nature of man, and not an adverse judgment, as would be the word selfishness."
- Frederic Bastiat