The Government and Legalized Plundering

Image Source

Introduction

In the essays written by Frederic Bastiat, he shares his clear perspective of what government means and how it has been greatly affected by legalized plunder. He criticizes the way the government he is living in has taken a socialist shift to tolerate legalized plundering. Our government was originally created with the purpose to protect its people, ensure justice/equality, and promote what is best for the people. Now it has slowly evolved into a system with various laws that do not represent all people in a fair and just way. There is corruption from the two hands of the government. One meant to take from the people (usually those in a lower class), and one meant to give to the people, and it does not always replenish what it has taken.

What is the Government

The government can be defined in a few ways but overall is seen by the people as a system that should support them, provide overall prosperity, and bring due justice. In the eyes of Frederic Bastiat “Government is that great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else”. The essays he wrote were during the times of the French Revolution as he lived in fear of a socialist economy. He feared the government would overstep one day and create unruly systems that benefit very little people. There may still be some truth to Bastiat’s idea of what the government is like and what he thought it would turn into. The government is the law, and the law is both individual right and lawful defense. Bastiat shares his dream of a system where each person would be left responsible for his existence. Man would find free labor and the success of his labors kept from unjust laws and attacks. Unfortunately, our government and the many laws our country has does not act in its proper and originally established ways.

What is Legalized Plunder

Legalized plunder is when our legal systems permits actions that ultimately rob the people of their rights and resources. They do this in a way that is legal though, so it appears to be correct. One thing important to note however is that just because something is legal does not mean that it is just. So, what does it mean for a government to be performing acts of legalized plunder? Imagine a small town, let’s call it SunnySide, located just outside of a larger city. Living in SunnySide were multiple loyal families who had lived there for years. This town was a small privately owned area where all its residents resided completely content with their resources and surroundings. Then one day the government declares there will be a great new development in the town. They claim it will be beneficial for the general public living in the undeniably growing city nearby. They push the campaign that this renovation is necessary and force the loyal residents of SunnySide to move. Additionally, the largely promoted campaigned proved to all be a lie when the new developments ended up only benefiting private corporations. While the government adding the new developments to the land and requiring the citizens to move was all legal, it was not just. It impacted the people negatively emotionally, physically, and financially. This action took from many what belonged to them only to give it to those whom it did not belong to at their benefit.

Is Our Society Still Living in Legalized Plunder

There are multiple areas in our society that we can see legalized plunder in affect today. College students who have student loans for example. In this situation profit institutions have taken advantage of young students’ financial situations and give that money to educational universities. Another example would be housing gentrification. The real estate industry purchases older neighborhoods in areas that are considered lower class and remake them into upscale neighborhoods meant to house the high class. This causes the residents to move out and potentially be left with nowhere to go or having to relocate too somewhere worse. Thankfully, our society has begun to take steps in eliminating the act of plundering. We now have things such as Social Security and public education which are meant to be beneficial to the general public and not just private corporations.

Conclusion

While we are beginning to see a new horizon on more “just” movements in our government system it can be said that our government has become too familiar with the act of legalized plundering. If this plunder continues, we will see man using the law to his benefit of avoiding plunder for himself or using plunder on another. If we do the right thing and rid of it altogether, we could start to see a government more for the people. I can say I agree with the argument Bastiat makes that our government was built to be honestly just and protect the people’s rights, not unjustly reposition who receives what. By advocating for things such as returned property rights and regulation of government power we will see our society begin to shift back to its original values for the people.