"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 aquired rights. .... 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."

Frederick Bastiat, The Law

Profound words from a man who died in the 1850's. The Law remains one of the classics of its age for a reason. People and human nature remain the same, and men are always looking for benefits they didn't work for at the expense of another. Hence the hall mark of socialism is that it steals from one and gives to another. When an individual researches the topic honestly they soon discover this truth: Socialism in any form will always degrade into tyranny and the loss of liberty. Many socialists have nothing but good intentions (Bastiat makes this clear). However, it is important that intentions are only good for the intent of the person, and are absolutely no guarantee for truth.

Bastiat's common sense and precise logic reveal to his audience what socialism really is. Unmasked are all the twisted logic and slight of hand. In the end anyone who reads this with a pure heart will understand socialism, and why it's a poisonous coctail to liberty.

The translation (the original was in French), from Seven Treasures Publications, doesn't ring as true as the translation by Dean Russell, of the Foundation for Economic Education.
Compare these two translations:

(from the Feb 6, 2009 edition from Seven Treasures Publications):
"Existence, faculties, assimilation - in other words, personality, liberty, property - this is man. It is of these three things that it may be said, apart from all the demagogue subtlety, that they are anterior and superior to all human legislation."

(from the Dean Russell translation):
"Life, faculties, production - in other words, individuality, liberty, property - this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it."

As stated in the 15th printing of the Foundation for Economic Education edition, "A nineteenth century translation of The Law, made in 1853 in England by an unidentified contemporary of Mr. Bastiat, was of much value as a check against this translation. In addition, Dean Russell had his work reviewed by Bertrand de Jouvenel, the noted French economist, historian, and author who is thoroughly familiar with the English language."

I recommend the Russell translation from the FEE. Hopefully, Amazon will sell it soon.

I was introduced to this book by a friend of mine 15 or 20 years ago. At the time I was young and middle of the road politically. I thought some things the government endeavored to spend money at were good and others downright silly.

After reading "The Law" my understanding of government in general crystallized to a large extent and has not changed much since. The author uses some examples from his time, but its not hard to follow his intent.

This work stands the test of time and is still as relevant today as it was in the mid 1800's. I would also recommend his other works as well. They also are concise and to the point.

I bought three copies of this book as I had lent my first copy out 10 years ago and it was never returned, which even though the original I had was sentimental to me, is OK since this book should be forwarded to as many people as possible. Legal Plunder is rampant in America today and will only be curbed by educating "We the People" about the cost of following these intolerable practices. Enjoy and then pass it on.

What is the law? Politial economist Frederic Bastiat suggests that the law is a negative, rather than a positive, concept: law is not justice, but a safeguard against injustice. As humans, Bastiat says, have a natural right to person, liberty, and property, one of the key criteria of justice is that it safeguards people's persons, liberty, and property. Thus, the government's legitimate role is to prevent theft and incursion onto individuals' liberties.

Needless to say, this was not then, and is not now, happening. Governments do not generally seem to limit themselves to protecting individual liberty, but go well beyond this, mistakenly supposing that they can legislate their way to justice. Whether it is social justice, a particular moral code, "fair trade," etc, governments often feel that the people cannot be trusted to recognize their own interests; government must enforce people's adherence to the government's interest.

Bastiat's greatest insight in this book is the concept of legal plunder. He suggests that while every government everywhere recognizes that it is wrong to steal someone's property (no matter how noble one's intent), government gives itself a free pass to take property, often taking from one class to give to another. Bastiat asks repeatedly this rhetorical question (for we already know the answer): if I may not steal from you to give to my friend without legal consequence, why can the government do this? If it is not fair when I take your property without your consent, why is government exempt from moral outrage when it follows suit?

Bastiat wrote "The Law" shortly after the French revolution, but it is not exaggeration to say that this terse and clearly argued book is every bit as necessary today as it was then. As I write this, the United States Congress (the real robber barons?) are set to give General Motors ANOTHER four billion of our tax dollars. This is the very defnition of legal plunder, as government is doing exactly as Bastiat says: taking from one group and giving to another (in this case, tex dollars are being funneled to a for-profit business!). Legal plunder is as alive today as it was in Revolutionary France.

This is most certainly a book that everyone concerned with liberty should read (and at less than 100 pages, we SHOULD all be reading it). Bastiat lays a fantastic theoretical framework for the liberal (small "l") state that we have been moving further and further away from. I would also suggest that one read, as a companion to this, Bastiat's "Essays on Political Economy," for as this book discusses liberty from a legal point of view, the other discusses it from an economic point of view (and is very much a precursor to the Austrian school of rconomics.)

So, read it and get angry!

Bastiat, a classical liberal shows just how evil a big government is, and how once you give government the power to get their hands on the economy, they quickly get involved in legal plunder, and it is not to the aid of the poor. He then talks about the absurdity of socialism, and how unnatural and ineffective it is. He talks about the absurdity of government violating property instead of protecting it, because after all, the only reason government comes into existence in the first place, is to only protect property. He also talks about the types of plunder and also makes the distinction that law is supposed to enhance freedom, not restrict it, although in our world, it is definitely the other way around. There is also a bit of history to be found in the book as well, and it goes back as far as ancient Greece. A must read for all people. Bastiat, the great economist, is also a great political philosopher.

The Law by Frederic Bastiat is perhaps the clearest and most logically founded explanation of the proper role of the law (government) in society I have yet read, and it is clearly in the same constellation of thought in which you will find the luminary ideas of our nation's own brilliant founding. Writing on his deathbed and freshly after the events of the 1848 revolutions, although the logic and consequences of his ideas are timeless, appears to have sharpened his mind and imparts this book with a profoundness and sagacity beyond its 106 short pages.

The simple central concept that shines throughout, familiar to Americans and certainly inspired by 1776, is that individuals have natural rights to life, liberty, and to property, which is the fruit of their efforts and faculties. Injustice is any violation of these rights, and the only just purpose of the law is their protection. As nature gave us the ability to defend these rights for ourselves, law is only their organized defense in the society.

At the core of the logic of his thought is a practical model of human behavior, one clearly developed by his background as an exporter. (The Law is his seminal work, his previous works were on economics.) He states

"A science of economics must be developed before a science of politics can be logically formulated. Essentially, economics is the science of determining whether the interests of human beings are harmonious or antagonistic. This must be known before a science of politics can be formulated to determine the proper functions of government."

Implicit in his reasoning is that once the organized monopoly on force inherent in government is wielded only to protect each individuals naturally endowed rights, human interests are harmonious and no further extension of the law is necessary. Human nature and interests are not inherently nor completely harmonious of course, necessitating the need for law in the first place. The vices he clearly identifies in human nature which must be guarded against are based in man's tendency to "live and prosper at the expense of others," or plunder. This vice ranges from the hard vice of illegal plunder, represented by anything from a petty theft conducted by an individual to the expansionist conquest undertaken by a whole people, to the softer sounding vice of "legal" plunder in which the law has been perverted to take from one class and give to another a positive right (i.e. to education, or health care, or housing) in the name of false philanthropy. Positive rights, which can only be produced by someone else's labor, come only with the destruction of naturally endowed negative rights as the law -force- cannot produce goods, cannot enlighten, cannot heal and cannot clothe by its mere existence. For the law to create these things it is only by use of force to coerce others to do them or take from their labor. This legal plunder sets up war of class against class, union against employer, trade against trade, as each races to beat the other in using the unchecked power of government to favor them. As simple proof of this he points out how no mob or lobbyist has ever rioted a police station in demand for a benefit, instead they storm the legislature where legal plunder can be drafted into law.

Socialism is at the heart of trying to provide positive rights and thus perverting the law towards instituting legal plunder. It was also at the heart of the 1848 revolutions, and it is not surprising then that his arguments against it receive the lion's share of this work. There are many parallels in his arguments against socialism applicable today, due to the unwavering nature of man over time. Bastiat describes in concise detail the pitfalls, traps, and false assumptions behind socialism, even in its most well intentioned and noble forms. Besides the inability of the law to create positive rights by fiat the largest false assumption is the inertness and malleability of men. That law is needed to create society, to socially engineer a mass of beings that can be formed by force and whom left to their own devices would slide into greed, destitution, and misery. This is at the heart of the Utopian fantasy which is so infectious to men's souls yet so ultimately poisonous. For if the natural tendencies of men are so poor, Bastiat asks us, how is it that the organizers of the law, the legislators, can be relied upon to be of a higher and better nature, pointing out the ironic self contradiction behind socialist and utopian engineering. Men are neither lifeless beings waiting for instruction from the law, man existed and developed before the law was created, nor are they so vile as to need the law to guide them in their lives and build their society for them, otherwise the cruel trick of man's cold nature would leave the development of good civil societies impossible. He shows how contradictions are not only inherent but central to socialism, and how socialism inevitably leads to tryanny and often to dictatorship. He also shows how faith in a free society, one in which government does not extend into providing education, health care, etc. is consistent with religious faith in how God made man's nature, and draws an interesting comparison between how modern secular societies are seeming to ineluctably move away from classical liberty and towards socialism. In another interesting flourish Bastiat also predicted how slavery would threaten to destroy the American republic before the Civil War, perhaps not an earth shattering prediction of the time but one he explains with an elegant degree of logic.

An amazing work which should be read by anyone interested in liberty, natural rights, philosophy, and the state of government. Each page rings with insight and reason for which you will be the better for having read.

This is a must read. I would like to see a copy of this book in the hands of every law maker in the country. So simple and so true. When I first read it at age 16, I purchased multiple copies to give away. As soon as I get back on my feet in this economy, I plan to do so again. LONG LIVE FREEDOM!

I wonder why books like this aren't part of every high school student's curriculum. Can't think of anything better to provoke thought and discussion on the purpose of law. To prevent plundering of life and property and nothing more.

I ordered this book with no idea what to expect, so of course I got something completely unexpected.

First --- and importantly --- unlike modern books on political theory, it is short, clear, and concise. The thoughts of the author are lucid and razor-sharp. In fact, his basic analysis seems impossible to refute.

That basic analysis begins with our inalienable right to life, liberty, and property. Bastiat notes that most men work for a living, and that a natural product of that work will be their private property, ranging from a file to a factory. Bastiat is also honest enough to admit that a lot of people would like to get rich, or simply survive, without doing much hard work at all, and their "solution" is to rob and plunder the property of others.

And from this, very simply, arises THE LAW. From at least Roman times, standard city plans have included a jail. All cities have police forces, for the simplest of reasons: if you read your history carefully, you will note that in times of serious tumult --- when the police withdraw from the streets --- mass looting breaks out, just about every time.

All of this is not really news, when we have ancient commandments such as THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.

Bastiat then takes his analysis one small step further. What happens when a small and powerful minority PERVERTS the law, and turns the law itself into a tool for robbers and looters? This ugly situation is captured in his phrase, "The few plunder the many." This is a very bad situation. THE LAW was designed to protect everyone. Now it protects only some. "Some animals are more equal than others."

Worse than that, when the plundered many realize what has been going on, they may react by deciding to return tat for tat, and then the full horror-show arrives, where "Everyone plunders everyone." Bastiat saw it all coming two hundred years ago: social security schemes, "progressive" income taxes, subsidies for businesses which bribed Congressmen --- you know what I am talking about, "the full catastrophe."

Now, when you put this book together with a bit of Ayn Rand, and the facts contained in the remarkable book, "Stealing from Each Other: How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit,"
you may think: well, the path to healing America is clear. It's wide-open. We can return to the Tenth Amendment.

Unfortunately, right now, this is not regarded as "conservative" but "reactionary." Neither major party would dream of doing this: Ronald Reagan tried his damnedest, but Washington inertia finally clobbered his plans.

The next two decades should be interesting. What will happen when Obama, like Gordon Brown, finally runs out of Other People's Money?

Right now, I'm happy to be living in Thailand. If the absurd cap-and-trade goes through, I won't be paying a penny of it. And a penny saved is a penny earned...

But, to summarize: Bastiat concluded that there were only three possible states of the government machine.

1. The few plunder the many.

2. Everybody plunders everybody.

3. Nobody plunders anybody.

For people with an ounce of decency left in their bodies, option (3) is the only option which does not involve lies, chicanery, and corruption. But we are VERY FAR from this, perhaps impossibly far.

Very highly recommended, indeed.

I was given a copy of The Law, by Frederic Bastiat, by a friend who thought I might be interested in its contents. I was expecting an American flag-waving document on patriotism, but instead I found this reasonable booklet by a French statesman, written in 1850, just after the Revolution of 1848, because the author was concerned about France's rapid slide into socialism and communism.

The comparisons to America today are stunning. I have long believed in small government, but have allowed my beliefs to be watered down because of "practical solutions" that I thought needed to be met. But now our generation seems to think that government will solve all of our problems, from economic and political to moral and medical. This is not the government I learned about in my textbooks as a boy, and this booklet has helped me to realize what a slippery slope we've been on for more than 50 years.

Bastiat makes a strong case that those in power see themselves as above the rest of mankind, and that they feel they have a right to decide what is good for the rest of the nation. And that "good" can shift depending on who is in power. Bastiat, on the other hand, makes the argument that government should "leave people alone."

The closing paragraph of the book sums up the whole argument pretty well:

"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works."

I will be reexamining my libertarian views in the light of what I've read here and perhaps giving more credence to the notion of smaller government. It's no secret that big government has compounded many of the problems its tried to solve. I wonder if this booklet is required reading in our government classes. If not, it should be.