No Legal Plunder: This Is The Principle

Men Naturally Rebel Against The Injustice Of Which They Are Victims. Thus, When Plunder Is Organized By Law For The Profit Of Those Who Make The Law, All The Plundered Classes Try Somehow To Enter, By Peaceful Or Revolutionary Means, Into The Making Of Laws. According To Their Degree Of Enlightenment, These Plundered Classes May Propose One Of Two Entirely Different Purposes When They Attempt To Attain Political Power: Either They May Wish To Stop Lawful Plunder, Or They May Wish To Share In It.

We Cannot But Be Astonished At The Ease With Which Men Resign Themselves To Ignorance About What Is Most Important For Them To Know; And We May Be Certain That They Are Determined To Remain Invincibly Ignorant If They Once Come To Consider It As Axiomatic That There Are No Absolute Principles.

Who Then Would Not Like To See These Benefits Flow Upon The World From The Law, As From An Inexhaustible Source? But Is It Possible? Whence Does The State Draw Those Resources That It Is Urged To Dispense By Way Of Benefits To Individuals? Is It Not From The Individuals Themselves? How, Then, Can These Resources Be Increased By Passing Through The Hands Of A Parasitic And Voracious Intermediary?

It Is Easier To Show The Disorder That Must Accompany Reform Than The Order That Should Follow It.

Now, 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.