Legal plunder is the use of the law to take the property of others and give it to another. Legal plunder is the political climate of the day. This is done in the name of egalitarian justice. Progressive taxation is its favorite strategy. Special interest groups are happy with such a system for they take advantage of taxes at the expense of other classes. For Frederic Bastiat, this system of legal plunder "is not merely an iniquity it is a fertile source of iniquities", and if it is not abolished, it "will extend, multiply, and become systematic" (The Law, p. 14).
Legal plunder has been going on for so long. Bastiat saw it done in France in 1850. His message remains relevant in the 21st century. Bastiat identifies the numerous names of legal plunder:
". . . . tariffs, protection, perquisites, gratuities, encouragements, progressive taxation, free public education, right to work, right to profit, right to wages, right to assistance, right to instruments of labor, gratuity of credit, etc., etc."
Taking all these these names as a whole and you will see that it is socialism that is at work. The essence of socialism is legal plunder.
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