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Try to imagine a regulation of labor imposed by force that is
not a violation of liberty; a transfer of wealth imposed by force
that is not a violation of property. If you cannot reconcile these
contradictions, then you must conclude that the law cannot
organize labor and industry without organizing injustice. 
The Political Approach
When a politician views society from the seclusion of his
office, he is struck by the spectacle of the inequality that he sees.
He deplores the deprivations which are the lot of so many of our
brothers, deprivations which appear to be even sadder when
contrasted with luxury and wealth.
Perhaps the politician should ask himself whether this state
of affairs has not been caused by old conquests and lootings, and
by more recent legal plunder. Perhaps he should consider this
proposition: Since all persons seek well-being and perfection,
would not a condition of justice be sufficient to cause the great-
est efforts toward progress, and the greatest possible equality
that is compatible with individual responsibility? Would not this
be in accord with the concept of individual responsibility which
God has willed in order that mankind may have the choice
between vice and virtue, and the resulting punishment and
reward?
But the politician never gives this a thought. His mind turns
to organizations, combinations, and arrangements—legal or
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apparently legal. He attempts to remedy the evil by increasing
and perpetuating the very thing that caused the evil in the first
place: legal plunder. We have seen that justice is a negative con-
cept. Is there even one of these positive legal actions that does
not contain the principle of plunder?
The Law and Charity
You say: “There are persons who have no money,” and you
turn to the law. But the law is not a breast that fills itself with
milk. Nor are the lacteal veins of the law supplied with milk from
a source outside the society. Nothing can enter the public trea-
sury for the benefit of one citizen or one class unless other citi-
zens and other classes have been forced to send it in. If every
person draws from the treasury the amount that he has put in it,
it is true that the law then plunders nobody.  But this procedure
does nothing for the persons who have no money. It does not
promote equality of income.  The law can be an instrument of
equalization only as it takes from some persons and gives to
other persons. When the law does this, it is an instrument of
plunder.
With this in mind, examine the protective tariffs, subsidies,
guaranteed profits, guaranteed jobs, relief and welfare schemes,
public education, progressive taxation, free credit, and public
works. You will find that they are always based on legal plunder,
organized injustice.
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The Law and Education
You say: “There are persons who lack education” and you
turn to the law. But the law is not, in itself, a torch of learning
which shines its light abroad. The law extends over a society
where some persons have knowledge and others do not; where
some citizens need to learn, and others can teach. In this matter
of education, the law has only two alternatives: It can permit this
transaction of teaching-and-learning to operate freely and with-
out the use of force, or it can force human wills in this matter by
taking from some of them enough to pay the teachers who are
appointed by government to instruct others, without charge. But
in this second case, the law commits legal plunder by violating
liberty and property.
The Law and Morals
You say: “Here are persons who are lacking in morality or
religion,” and you turn to the law. But law is force. And need I
point out what a violent and futile effort it is to use force in the
matters of morality and religion?
It would seem that socialists, however self-complacent,
could not avoid seeing this monstrous legal plunder that results
from such systems and such efforts. But what do the socialists
do? They cleverly disguise this legal plunder from others—and
even from themselves—under the seductive names of fraternity,
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unity, organization, and association. Because we ask so little
from the law—only justice—the socialists thereby assume that
we reject fraternity, unity, organization, and association. The
socialists brand us with the name individualist.
But we assure the socialists that we repudiate only forced
organization, not natural organization. We repudiate the forms
of association that are forced upon us, not free association. We
repudiate forced fraternity, not true fraternity. We repudiate the
artificial unity that does nothing more than deprive persons of
individual responsibility. We do not repudiate the natural unity
of mankind under Providence.
A Confusion of Terms
Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, con-
fuses the distinction between government and society. As a
result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by gov-
ernment, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done
at all.
We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say
that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state reli-
gion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We
object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are
against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists
were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do
not want the state to raise grain.
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