THE PLUNDERER
Lifted from Jon Hermosisima
"If you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. It is USELESS." (Ecclesiastes 5:10) ***
That is why the PLUNDERERS become more depraved and craven with every coin that they stole.
That is why the Plunderers become hungrier with every food that they seized from the plate of another man.
That is why the Plunderers will never stop on their own accord. And this is how Plunder becomes a way of life.
----
"When plunder becomes a way of life, men create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it" is a quote by the 19th-century French economist and political philosopher Frรฉdรฉric Bastiat. It highlights his idea that when people in a society regularly engage in taking others' property without consent—through force or fraud—they will eventually create laws and justifications to legitimize their actions, thus turning it from individual wrongdoing into a systemic, accepted practice.
Explanation of the Quote
Plunder
: In Bastiat's context, plunder refers to the taking of wealth or property from one person without their consent and without compensation, benefiting another person who did not create that wealth.
Legal System
: Over time, a society where plunder is common will develop laws and regulations that, instead of preventing it, effectively authorize or encourage it, making it a "legal plunder".
Moral Code
: Simultaneously, society will also develop a moral framework and language to justify and even glorify these actions, making them seem virtuous or necessary rather than immoral.
Bastiat's Work
: This quote, found in his broader writings, reflects his opposition to protectionism, socialism, and any government intervention that violated individual liberty and property rights, arguing it was a form of legal plunder.
Significance
The quote serves as a warning against the normalization of taking wealth through legal means, such as excessive tariffs, subsidies, and other forms of regulation that can benefit certain groups at the expense of others.
It underscores Bastiat's fundamental principle that the role of law is to protect individual rights, not to facilitate plunder or redistribute wealth.
