In The Law, Bastiat wrote that "each of us has a natural right – from God – to defend his person, his liberty, and his property."

Bastiat asserted that whereas justice has precise limits, philanthropy is limitless and thus government can grow endlessly when that becomes its function.

The resulting statism, he argued, is "based on this triple hypothesis: the total inertness of mankind, the omnipotence of the law, and the infallibility of the legislator."

Bastiat stated, "I do not dispute their right to invent social combinations, to advertise them, to advocate them, and to try them upon themselves, at their own expense and risk.

The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others.

Laws are passed saying that opposing plunder is illegal, with punishments that will accumulate to death, if resisted consistently.

Though living in France, Bastiat wrote this book when slavery was still legal in the United States and was very controversial there, as it was in Europe.

Globally famous were the two key components of this, with the northern states imposing crippling tariffs that impoverished the South while trying to ban slavery.

These are the only two issues where, contrary to the general spirit of the republic of the United States, law has assumed the character of a plunderer.

The protective tariff is a violation, by law, of property.Bastiat goes on to describe other forms of plunder, both legalized by the state and banned.