One of the shortest, and greatest, books on political ideas that I have ever read is Frederic Bastiat's The Law (buy it here). The slim volume is 154 years old, but it's more relevant to our times than most books released today. I conducted a small seminar on the The Law today with some DC-area interns, and I think what's most appealing about the book is that you really have to read just a couple of lines to understand it. Bastiat concisely outlines how one identifies theft by the state: "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." Any number of current government schemes fits Bastiat's definition of "legal plunder." These include foreign aid, progressive taxation, and corporate bailouts. Perhaps other examples come more readily to your mind.

I have often thought that the following argument could be made to those who say that morality cannot be legislated.

"Isn't caring for the poor a moral issue? Don't you liberals say that helping the disenfranchised is "morally right?" Then progressive taxation on the wealthy in order to create transfer payments to the less well off is in effect legislating morality."

Just wanted your thoughts on this, Dan.

Be well,

Sponge

Here! Here! I love that book.