The Philosophy of Liberty: Plunder
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And now the philosophy of liberty.
PLUNDER
Imagine you you're sitting on your couch watching the big game
when a band of vikings breaks in
and steals your flat screen tv
What would you do?
Since the government's job is to protect
property rights you probably call the police
with any luck you get your TV back
the vikings will be brough to justice
and life would go back to uh...
normal...
until three months later the vikings escaped from prison.
and guess what
they still want your TV
only this time they hire the mafia to get it for them.
Is there really any difference?
Hardly, you don't have your flat screen
and the vikings are still responsible
even if they didn't physically steel it.
With any luck you will eventually get your TV back.
The vikings and the mafia will be brought to justice
and life would go back to...
okay there's probably no such thing as normal after that.
So what if the mafia decided to donate the flat screen
to a family less fortunate than yours.
does this active charity make the theft of your personal property any better?
Absolutely not.
Anytime anyone steals your property for any reason
with or without the help of a mafia
it's a criminal act of aggression.
So what do vikings and mafia have to do with Frederic Bastiat?
Not much, but Bastiat once said:
"Government is a great fiction where everybody seeks to live
at the expense of everybody else."
Bastiat observed that instead of hiring the mafia
contemporary vikings lobbied congress to get what they want
Acts of aggression that are criminal when commitetted by you or I,
suddenly become legal through the magic of legislation
in this way individuals or groups of people are able to steal life liberty
and property of others with the protection and assistance
of the government
it's what Bastiat called
Legal plunder
What does legal plunder look like?
Sometimes Legal plunder is easy to see:
When banks or businesses get billions of dollars in bailouts
that is Legal plunder.
When legislation forces you to buy insurance for yourself or others
That is Legal plunder
Other times legal plunder is harder to spot
and may even appear to benefit society
like federal farm subsidies or social security.
But anytime wealth is forcefully transfered
from one person to another
it isn't charity.
it's just another form of legal plunder.
Legal plunder doesn't only apply the money.
Government coercion that steals someone's life or freedom is another form of plunder.
Like when your children are forced to attend government schools or
fight in foreign wars or compete in reality television shows.
Ok, so we made that one up but you get the idea.
Bastiat concluded that:
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men
they create for themselves in the course of time
a legal system that authorizes it
and a moral code that glorifies it."
In other words Legal plunder transforms citizens
into competing bands of vikings
while transforming the government into a powerful mafia
carrying out acts of organized crime
against the natural rights our founding fathers established it to protect.
In this vicious cycle it's just a matter of time
before the neighbour we plundered uses the government to plunder us.
So the next time you see the helpful hand of government at work,
ask yourself this:
Who is being plundered to make this possible
Don't be surprised if that answer is:
YOU
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