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The Choice Before Us
This question of legal plunder must
be settled once and for all, and there are only three ways to
settle it:
1. The few plunder the
many.
2. Everybody plunders
everybody.
3. Nobody plunders anybody.
We must make our choice among
limited plunder, universal plunder, and no plunder. The law can
follow only one of these three.
Limited legal plunder: This system
prevailed when the right to vote was restricted. One would turn
back to this system to prevent the invasion of socialism.
Universal legal plunder: We have
been threatened with this system since the franchise was made
universal. The newly enfranchised majority has decided to
formulate law on the same principle of legal plunder that was
used by their predecessors when the vote was limited.
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).*
*Translator’s note: At the
time this was written, Mr. Bastiat knew that he was dying of
tuberculosis. Within a year, he was dead.
Clark Simmons, Webmaster
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