Principle 13

“How is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes 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…” – Frederick Bastiat, (The Law, p. 26)

A plethora of taxes collections are obtained through “legal plunder” as Frederick Bastiat calls it. American citizens should NOT be deprived of their property, especially as a gift to foreign governments or their citizens. Today, our government is engaged in “Legal plunder” as Frederick Bastiat coined, by taking monies from “the general welfare” to spends in the form of bailouts, Foreign aid, entitlements, welfare, farm or business subsidies, state grants, aid to education, housing, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, etc.

These “services” are not, and never have been, authorized constitutionally. By doing these things the government is committing cosmic-sized theft by taking from the “haves” and giving to the “have nots” irrespective of why the “have nots” have not!

Principle 25 in Cleon Skousen’s “5000 Year-Leap” states:

“Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations – entangling alliances with none.” – Thomas Jefferson, given in his first inaugural address.

John Locke reasoned that God gave the earth and everything in it to the whole human family as a gift. Therefore the land, the sea, the acorns in the forest, the deer feeding in the meadow belong to everyone “in common.” However, the moment someone takes the trouble to change something from its original state of nature, that person has added his ingenuity or labor to make that change. Herein lies the secret to the origin of “property rights.”

Principle 14 in Cleon Skousen’s “5000 Year-Leap” states:

“Life and liberty are secure only so long as the right to property is secure.”