The Law

industrial frauds and the monopolies with which its annals are filled.

This fatal disposition takes its origin in the very constitution of man, in that primitive, universal, and invincible sentiment that drives him toward well-being and makes him flee from pain original: "peine." In this context, Bastiat uses "pain" to mean both physical/mental suffering and the arduous effort or "trouble" required by manual labor..

Man can live and enjoy life only through perpetual assimilation and appropriation—that is, by the perpetual application of his faculties to things, or through labor. From this comes Property.

But, in fact, he can live and enjoy life by assimilating and appropriating the product of the faculties of his fellow man. From this comes Plunder original: "Spoliation." This is Bastiat’s signature term for the act of seizing the property or labor of others, especially when done through the mechanism of the law..

Now, since labor is itself a pain, and man is naturally inclined to avoid pain, it follows—and history is there to prove it—that wherever plunder is less burdensome than labor, it prevails; it prevails even when neither religion nor morality can, in such cases, prevent it.

When, then, does plunder stop? When it becomes more burdensome and more dangerous than labor.

It is quite evident that the Law should have as its goal the opposition of the powerful obstacle of collective force to this fatal tendency; it should take the side of Property against Plunder.