Monday, April 14, 2008

Bastiat on Taxes (and Other Thefts-by-Government)

It's not taxes per se that Bastiat criticizes. Think, for example of the "Lightbulb Law" mandating Phillips' and GE's flouro-wonks, or the Fed/State Corn-a-Hole mandate.

“The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is... 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... If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.” —Frederic Bastiat

Someone could write a VERY long paper about those laws...

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