Famous Frederic Bastiat Quote

"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)."

by:	Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) French economist, statesman, and author. He did most of his writing during the years just before -- and immediately following -- the French Revolution of February 1848.
Date:	June 1850
Source:	The Law, by Frederic Bastiat, 1850 http://liberty-tree.ca/research/TheLaw
Rating:
Categories:	Constitution, Death, Economics, Freedom, Government, Honor, Justice, Law, Liberty, Money, Sovereignty, Tax, Taxation, Tyranny
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Shame he isnt chief justice  -- Steve
Such justice, peace, order, stability, harmony, and logic are all absent from the despotic government that now infects this nation. Legal plunder is now the government's heart beat - to stop the plunder would be to kill the beast.  -- Mike, Norwalk
Bastiat's "The Law" is an excellent read and can be found on line. It's pretty easy to see why Bastiat isn't taught in the government's indoctrination centers they call public schools.  -- Bryan Morton, Stuart, FL
Taxes, for whatever purpose, are nothing more than legalized extortion.  -- jim k, austin
Let pragmatism be our guide. Wealth comes from the "poor", if the "poor" have more money the "rich" will find ways to get it. In my town we are a southern town of a few industrialists and old wealth and a lot of "lower class", If it were not for the lower classes we would not have the top feeders. Legal plunder is just another form of plunder and different only in perspective from the plunder the "classes" inflict upon each other and is probably a way to keep the system going for the benefit of all concerned. Were taxes to stop piracy and plunder at sea a form of legalized extortion? Are the Somali pirates within their rights to continue their trade without interference from tax supported (plunder supported) governments interfering?  -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas
The poor generally choose to be poor. If you don't want to be poor, don't get pregnant in high school, finish high school, don't get a credit card, and get a job. Anybody can become wealthy if they want to work for it. Anybody. Who are the "wealthy" in America? They are the small business owners, most of whom have only a high school education and don't come from old money. They do have one thing in common: they are willing to work 80 hours a week to get their business off the ground, they are willing to take risks, and they are willing to risk failure. Those are the people who will be taxed so that 95% of the American people can get a tax cut. In fact that "tax cut" is welfare in the form of a refundable tax credit to half of those 95% who don't and never will pay taxes. They are the lazy and unindustrious that the rest of us are going to be forced to support. Subsidize something and you get more of it: more laziness, more foolish, stupid decisions, more "poor" people. Let's just break a few more windows, then everybody can have a job.  -- Ken, Allyn, WA
Bastiat's 'The Law' is a brilliant piece of work -- the link to it is above in the Source section. Waffler is incoherent as usual -- I doubt he has or ever will read 'The Law'.  -- E Archer, NYC
Does anyone know whether or not corporations may have jurisdiction outside of their place of incorporation? Some on this site says that the IRS is incorporated in Puerto Rico and thus has no jurisdiction outside of Puerto Rico. Many US (all incorporated in one state or another since corporate law is under state law) and foreign corporations do business in the US and all over the world. Corporations of course have the same rights as individuals and as we know we are free to do busy anywhere. I don't know about the PR thing but the IRS Headquarters Bldg is in DC. Can anyone expound on this for the benefit of those who say that the poor IRS is stuck with just doing business in PR where there are about 2 million people.  -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas
Waffler, your IRS question is too expansive to give justice to in this blog format. For one explanation in a myriad of answers, the IRS is not registered anywhere in the US to do business. By way of example: A Nevada domiciled corporation must register in Arkansas before doing business there. Further, a government entity (real, quasi, or otherwise) must have an enabling act passed (that which defines it, gives it its duties, and authorizes it to do what it does - such as certain courts can hear certain cases because they are authorized to do such) before it commences operation. No enabling act has ever been passed for the IRS. (the Director yes, the Service no)  -- Mike, Norwalk
The uniqueness of the US was that it was based on law (Natural Law - by way of long term historical observation - making all men free) and not the fleeting, wavering or waffling opinions of man. The current manner in which income tax is perpetrated upon the once sovereign is tantamount to larceny, the plunder thereof making a society of slaves.  -- Mike, Norwalk

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