There Are People Who Think

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.

We Cannot Doubt That Self-interest Is The Mainspring Of Human Nature. It Must Be Clearly Understood That This Word Is Used Here To Designate A Universal, Incontestable Fact, Resulting From The Nature Of Man, And Not An Adverse Judgment, As Would Be The Word Selfishness.

There Is In All Of A Strong Disposition To Believe That Anything Lawful Is Also Legitimate. This Belief Is So Widespread That Many Persons Have Erroneously Held That Things Are "just" Because The Law Makes Them So.

You Compare The Nation To A Parched Piece Of Land And The Tax To A Life-giving Rain. So Be It. But You Should Also Ask Yourself Where This Rain Comes From, And Whether It Is Not Precisely The Tax That Draws The Moisture From The Soil And Dries It Up. You Should Also Ask Yourself Further Whether The Soil Receives More Of This Precious Water From The Rain Than It Loses By The Evaporation?

Now Since Man Is Naturally Inclined To Avoid Pain - And Since Labor Is Pain In Itself - It Follows That Men Will Resort To Plunder Whenever Plunder Is Easier Than Work. History Shows This Quite Clearly. And Under These Conditions, Neither Religion Nor Morality Can Stop It. When, Then, Does Plunder Stop? It Stops When It Becomes More Painful And More Dangerous Than Labor. It Is Evident, Then, That The Proper Purpose Of Law Is To Use The Power Of Its Collective Force To Stop This Fatal Tendency To Plunder Instead Of To Work. All The Measures Of The Law Should Protect Property And Punish Plunder.