Hi @marshbella , I enjoyed reading your insight on these weekly readings and the points you stated. I agree with you that one of the major points in the article was the discussion on liberty. In my opinion, liberty, as explained in the context of this article, is defined as being the person with the power to establish laws, make decisions within the government, and is the one with the most freedom. This is shown throughout the article with Bastait’s view on laws. It was interesting how the author believed that the laws were made by the government, but liberty was obtained by the people. For the most part, the people within the government were the lawmakers so they were primarily choosing laws that gave themselves the most liberty. You also mentioned the fact that these articles were written in legal jargon, which is an interesting point and one that I did not realize. It helps to explain why this article was hard for me to read and understand, given that it was written using so many terms of legal context. Lastly, you defined the word “plundering,” which is emphasized throughout the article. I was having a challenging time defining this word myself, but the way you explained it made so much more sense. In my mind, the author was referencing plundering as something being done to people because of the laws set up and the legal system enforcing them. But now I see, as you mentioned, that in the article “plundering” was defined as,

“by seizing and appropriating the productions of the faculties of his fellow men” (Bastiat, 2011, p. 53).

Because of this quote, we now know that plundering is referred to as stealing liberty from society. However, as you mentioned, the article used the word several times to express how our society is built, in such a way that the laws are enforced to help some while inadvertently hurting others. Overall, I do agree with you on how the article talks about laws, the government, and the use of labor, as well as how some individuals create the laws to help themselves but not so much that they do not have the liberty to still live their life.