The Worst Thing That Can Happen To

The Real Cost Of The State Is The Prosperity We Do Not See, The Jobs That Don’t Exist, The Technologies To Which We Do Not Have Access, The Businesses That Do Not Come Into Existence, And The Bright Future That Is Stolen From Us. The State Has Looted Us Just As Surely As A Robber Who Enters Our Home At Night And Steals All That We Love.

They Would Be The Shepherds Over Us, Their Sheep. Certainly Such An Arrangement Presupposes That They Are Naturally Superior To The Rest Of Us. And Certainly We Are Fully Justified In Demanding From The Legislators And Organizers Proof Of This Natural Superiority.

As Proof Of This Statement, Consider This Question: Have The People Ever Been Known To Rise Against The Court Of Appeals, Or Mob A Justice Of The Peace, In Order To Get Higher Wages, Free Credit, Tools Of Production, Favorable Tariffs, Or Government-created Jobs? Everyone Knows Perfectly Well That Such Matters Are Not Within The Jurisdiction Of The Court Of Appeals Or A Justice Of The Peace. And If Government Were Limited To Its Proper Functions, Everyone Would Soon Learn That These Matters Are Not Within The Jurisdiction Of The Law Itself.

The Law Has Been Perverted, And The Powers Of The State Have Become Perverted Along With It. The Law Has Not Only Been Turned From Its Proper Function, But Made To Follow An Entirely Contrary Purpose. The Law Has Become A Tool For Every Kind Of Greed. Instead Of Preventing Crime, The Law Itself Is Guilty Of The Abuses It Is Supposed To Punish. If This Is True, It Is A Serious Matter, And Moral Duty Requires Me To Call The Attention Of My Fellow-citizens To It.

All You Have To Do, Is To See Whether The Law Takes From Some What Belongs To Them In Order To Give It To Others To Whom It Does Not Belong. We Must See Whether The Law Performs, For The Profit Of One Citizen And To The Detriment Of Others, An Act Which That Citizen Could Not Perform Himself Without Being Guilty Of A Crime. Repeal Such A Law Without Delay. ... [i]f You Don't Take Care, What Begins By Being An Exception Tends To Become General, To Multiply Itself, And To Develop Into A Veritable System.