With regard to Bastiat's rather long argument about "plunder" and the law which was supposedly symbolic of what was happening in France in 1850 had little or nothing to do with the splitting in half of the U.S.A. In fact, I have studied French history quite a bit and they call themselves three parts: the north, the middle, and the south. Guess what? The South which they claim is Northern Africa. Also socialism is the accepted government in France. College is paid for, hospitals are free, and they barely lifted a hand to help us help them in WWII. I realize that I am projecting into their future from 1850 but I know how they have progressed. If that tiny little country had split in two pieces, it would've been annexed by Luxembourg and Belgium, mostly likely. He did say one thing correctly, "The law is power", like it or not. I guess we could say the law is plunder, as well. Johnny Reb, my great uncles and grandfathers fought because slaves were needed before our country had machines. Then we used Mexicans and now, nobody wants to pick crops. Sorry, I digress. You suggested that we read it and I feel that Bastiat was living in a vacuum and so is the U.S. A.!! Socialism is not communism and we already have medicare, medicaid, social security, unemployment benefits and now to take care of our soldiers coming home from Baghdad. Did we plunder Iraq? Anybody want to take me to war? I'll be in the mountains of Afghanistan or maybe Pakistan if you need to see me. I just wrote a book on the WWII veterans of Greene County, IN. Yes, that particular war was worth fighting for. And like our confederate relatives, I would have fought, too, but with reservations about how we could defeat the huge arsenal that the Yanks had in New England.