Bastiat and legal plunder

 

{sigh}

This morning I was reading to the kids from Carson about how the Constitution came to be regarded and respected as Higher Law in our country due to a contest between Chief Justice Marshall and the Jeffersonians in the early 1800s.  Interesting.  It was also was understood that each branch of government was to determine its own actions based on its own interpretation of the Constitution.  {{the judiciary branch wasn’t the only judge of what the Constitution says!}}  So Congress often debated the constitutionality of its proposed legislation.  And “until after 1865 many more bills were invalidated by Presidents on the ground of their unconstitutionality than were invalidated by the Supreme Court.” 

Think on that for a minute or ten.  {Then be sure to go back and note the year of 1865.  I could go off on the Lincoln presidency…}

Meanwhile in the year {AD} 2014…

A facebook friend posted yesterday about it being an election day.  I surmised it must be school board election time.  Which we do not get to participate in since we lived outside city limits.  Yet our kids would be considered part of the local school district if we enrolled them in the public schools?  And 53% of our property taxes are sent to the same local district.  {anyone else see a problem with that?}

ANYway, today her status became a short discussion of additional taxes levied to pay for new school buildings…  ad nauseum. One commenter [Jenn] pays for the private education of her children, and she is of the opinion the public schools appear to have an abundance of funds.  Someone else [Barb] was arguing that Jenn also benefitted from the public school systems in her own education {which Jenn refuted with the fact her parents paid}.   But then they both agreed that vouchers were a great option so that Jenn’s taxes could help pay for her own kids’ private education.  End of discussion?

I hesitated.  Thought about posting something like this:

:x

As in, I’m biting my tongue instead of spewing hot lava. 

But then I went looking for Mr. Bastiat’s little gem called The Law.  Since I couldn’t find our printed copy I resorted to an online search:: success!  espec since it’s so much easier to copy/paste.  {and yes, I’m lazy – but I did read much of the writing while searching for his discussion on legal plunder.  So I’m not a total dufus in spite of my own public schools education.  ahem.  God is the Great Redeemer!}

On facebook I only posted the first paragraph I’ve quoted here, but it’s all so good.  So in the midst of my trying to recount the long month of August in our own small world, here’s a little insight to the reality of socialism in America.

Why do we have so many ‘victims’ in our country?  Why is their so much real violence?  Why do we have such an anti-American living in the White House?

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

I am so incredibly thankful that my ultimate citizenship is in heaven by the grace and mercy of God.  Meanwhile we are to be good stewards in the place God has put us.  I believe that includes being a voice for truth and justice.  Now we just need Tim to offer his own blog of wisdom to share with y’all.  For now I guess you could listen to Jan M on WHO Radio along with reading some Bastiat.

While I suggest you click and read the entire book, you could begin with this tidbit from Frederick Bastiat:

 

How to Identify Legal Plunder

But how is this 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, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law — which may be an isolated case — is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.

The person who profits from this law will complain bitterly, defending his acquired rights. He will claim that the state is obligated to protect and encourage his particular industry; that this procedure enriches the state because the protected industry is thus able to spend more and to pay higher wages to the poor workingmen.

Do not listen to this sophistry by vested interests. The acceptance of these arguments will build legal plunder into a whole system. In fact, this has already occurred. The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it.

Legal Plunder Has Many Names

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. All these plans as a whole — with their common aim of legal plunder — constitute socialism.

Now, since under this definition socialism is a body of doctrine, what attack can be made against it other than a war of doctrine? If you find this socialistic doctrine to be false, absurd, and evil, then refute it. And the more false, the more absurd, and the more evil it is, the easier it will be to refute. Above all, if you wish to be strong, begin by rooting out every particle of socialism that may have crept into your legislation. This will be no light task.