A Fishy Story

How is legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Frederic Bastiat 1801-1850

A Fishy Story

See the hard working, weathered man
Donning his well worn slicker
He works from dawn to setting sun
Still struggling, but here's the kicker

He raised his family to be strong
And put away their money
Since that time he's taxed so much
It surely isn't funny

His fishing boats are paid for
With the sweat dripping off his brow
He'll work until he's old and grey
I really don't know how

He paid off land along the sea
To moor is fishing fleet
Sometimes his family picniced there
It really was quite sweet

But along came the local government
With plans to take his land
They said the beauty a park would bring
Would surely be so grand

They called the fishing boats unsightly
For their townspeople to have to see
If the fisherman refused to sell his land
Political force just had to be

So they took away the family's land
For a very minimal price
Said the fishing boats could move elsewhere
This land was much too nice

But the cost of mooring fishing boats
A fleet as large as this
Would be much too costly to sustain
They could no longer fish

The fishing fleet was sold, they tell
And the fisherman retired
All the people who worked for him
Unfortunately, were fired

So now all the happy people
Can meander freely around their park
While unemployed fishermen
Have outlooks bleak and dark

Marian
February 10, 2010