With the government shutdown, and the theatrics surrounding it, now would be a good time to explore Bastiat's essay The Law, and his concept of legal plunder. As specific government services are shut down, seemingly to draw the greatest public outcry, it is worth understanding the nature of the state, and of those with vested interest in keeping it going. Those receiving benefits from the state support its entrance into all aspects or private lives and the market.
But the state has no wealth itself, it can only give to one party by first taking from another. That forced redistribution of wealth is what Bastiat warned would be a nation's downfall, and the sentiment remains constant through the centuries. Even Margaret Thatcher believed that redistribution only worked until we run out of other people's money. The irony is that in fighting communism, the US embraced socialism fully.
