Frederic Bastiat/Legal Plunder

One of Bastiat's most significant observations is found in his essay "The Law" on the subject of what he terms "legal plunder". Here is the quote: "But how is this legal plunder to be identified? See if the law takes from 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." A cursory examination of all government expenditures will show the magnitude of this issue. Much of what government spends is in the form of transfers of some kind from one group to another group (or even to individuals in certain cases). Elected officials work hard to "bring home the bacon" but that simply transfers money from one state to another, and deals are always made that tend to favor the most influential elected officials. Even if the transfers tended to even out the cost to taxpayers is much greater, and the issue of fraud and corruption is always inherent in such a system.