… is from Frédéric Bastiat’s famous 1850 essay, “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen“; “Mr. Prohibant” is the name that Bastiat here gives to a protectionist:
The violence exercised at the border by Mr. Prohibant himself or that which he has exercised through the law may be considered to be very different from the moral point of view. Some people think that plunder loses all its immorality when it is legal. For my part, I cannot imagine a circumstance that is worse. Be that as it may, what is certain is that the economic results are the same.
DBx: Arranging for the state to drum up business for you by threatening violence on consumers who wish to patronize other sellers is plunder, pure and simple. It is plunder no less surely – and likely even more destructive – than it would be if you yourself wielded the gun and didn’t outsource your plundering to others.
