If Goods Don't Cross Borders, Armies Will.

Life, Liberty, And Property Do Not Exist Because Men Have Made Laws. On The Contrary, It Was The Fact That Life, Liberty, And Property Existed Beforehand That Caused Men To Make Laws In The First Place.

It Is Easy To Understand Why The Law Is Used By The Legislator To Destroy In Varying Degrees Among The Rest Of The People, Their Personal Independence By Slavery, Their Liberty By Oppression, And Their Property By Plunder. This Is Done For The Benefit Of The Person Who Makes The Law, And In Proportion To The Power That He Holds.

Legal Plunder Can Be Committed In An Infinite Number Of Ways; Hence, There Are An Infinite Number Of Plans For Organizing It: Tariffs, Protection, Bonuses, Subsidies, Incentives, The Progressive Income Tax, Free Education, The Right To Employment, The Right To Profit, The Right To Wages, The Right To Relief, The Right To The Tools Of Production, Interest Free Credit, Etc., Etc. And It The Aggregate Of All These Plans, In Respect To What They Have In Common, Legal Plunder, That Goes Under The Name Of Socialism.

Here I Encounter The Most Popular Fallacy Of Our Times. It Is Not Considered Sufficient That The Law Should Guarantee To Every Citizen The Free And Inoffensive Use Of His Faculties For Physical, Intellectual And Moral Self-improvement. Instead, It Is Demanded That The Law Should Directly Extend Welfare, Education, And Morality Throughout The Nation. This Is The Seductive Lure Of Socialism. And I Repeat: These Two Uses Of The Law Are In Direct Contradiction To Each Other.

No Legal Plunder: This Is The Principle Of Justice, Peace, Order, Stability, Harmony, And Logic. Until The Day Of My Death, I Shall Proclaim This Principle With All The Force Of My Lungs (which Alas! Is All Too Inadequate).