Happy New Years Gentlemen. Today I bring you some wisdom from Bastiat on Legal Plunder. When enjoying my reread of his classic The Law for New Years I came across a passage that perfectly exemplifies the family courts and Deluth model awarding of alimony and other thefts against men to women.

Written in 1850, the Law could be mistaken for having been written yesterday. In his final work, Bastiat railed against socialism of his day, now terribly so common that people do not even see it as socialism anymore. Anyway without further ado here is his words. Note: I’ve changed his gendered language to genderless for sake of clarity, highlighting its relevance today. In Bastiats day only men could vote and so all wording was in the masculine. Such changes will be in ( ).

But how is 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 (themselves cannot do without committing a crime.

Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also is a firtile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law – which may be an isolated case – is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.

The person who profits from this law will complain bitterly, defending (their) acquired rights. (They) will claim that the state is obligated to protect and encourage (their) particular industry; that this procedure enriches the state because the protected industry is thus able to spend more and to pay higher wages to the poor workingmen.

Do not listen to this sophistry by vested interests. The acceptance of these arguments will build legal plunder into a whole system. In fact, this has already occurred. The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it.

Were our current predicament not so made the sadder by the failings of those that came before us whom had ample warnings as to the consequences of their actions. I find this entry very similar to the rise of alimony, child support, and divorce industry. Bastiat in his pronouncement in our hindsight becomes somewhat clairvoyant in his predictions.

At any rate have a Happy New Year. Pick up a copy of The Law by Bastiat. It is a quick and short read, but one that jams into its length a plethora of wisdom.