Frederick Bastiat

But how is this 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. Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law -which may be an isolated case- is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system. The person who profits from this law will complain bitterly , defending his aquired rights. .... The present day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it.

Frederick Bastiat, The Law

One of the hall marks of socialism in any form is to steal from those who have and give it to others WHO HAVEN"T WORKED FOR IT... In the end it destroys initiative, destroys freedom, and always degrades into tyranny. Bastiat said it best, you can't steal from one person and give it to another. You can't give people that which they should do for themselves. Why make people study for a college degree? Why not just take it from a person that already has it and give the credentials to his neighbor who has been smoking and drinking the past four years? Some of you might think that's absurd, but are we not doing that financially with our current Welfare system?