We hold from God the gift that, as far as we are concerned, contains all others, Life — physical, intellectual, and moral life. - Frédéric Bastiat

When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.

need not involve an actual dictator. All that was needed, said Bastiat, was “the laws,” enacted by a Congress or a Parliament, that would achieve the same effect: forced conformity.

When a portion of wealth is transferred from the person who owns it — without his consent and without compensation, and whether by force or by fraud — to anyone who does not own it, then I say that property is violated; that an act of plunder is committed.