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.
If special privilege were granted only to one group, it would so obviously be legal plunder that it could not last for long. It is for this reason that we see plunderers combined into a common cause.
They claim to accomplish the general welfare by general plunder.
Since the law organizes justice, some ask why the law should not also organize labor, education, industry, and so on. Why not?
Because when law and force are applied to justice, they oblige people only to abstain from harming others. But when the law, imposes upon men a regulation of labor, education, or industry — it substitutes the will of the legislature for the will of free individuals.
When this happens, intelligence becomes a useless prop; people lose their personality, their liberty, and their property.
Try to imagine a regulation of labor imposed by force that is not a violation of someone’s liberty; or a transfer of wealth imposed by force that is not a violation of someone’s property.
If you cannot reconcile these contradictions, then you must conclude that the law cannot organize labor and industry without organizing injustice.
But what to do about it, when legalized plunder is found?
The person who profits from this law will complain bitterly. He will claim that the state is obligated to protect and encourage his 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 the pleas of 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.
If this question of legal plunder must be settled once and for all, then there are only three ways to settle it:
We must make our choice among limited plunder, universal plunder, and no plunder. The law can follow only one of these three.
Limited legal plunder:
This system prevails when the right to vote is restricted, and power comes from above.
Universal legal plunder:
This system flourishes when majorities formulate law against the will of minorities. It is the starting point of communism, and the ending point of democracy, as plunder becomes the currency of politics.
No legal plunder:
This is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony, and logic. It is the rule of law. It is freedom.
The choice is yours: Plunder or Freedom.
Part One: Laying Down The Law, Pt.1
Part Two: Laying Down The Law, Pt.2