Saturday, June 12, 2004 If we assume that the individual has an indisputable right to life, we must concede that he has a similar right to the enjoyment of the products of his labor. This we call a property right. The absolute right to property follows from the original right to life because one without the other is meaningless; the means to life must be identified with life itself. If the State has a prior right to the products of one’s labor, his right to existence is qualified. Aside from the fact that no such prior right can be established, except by declaring the State the author of all rights, our inclination (as shown in the effort to avoid paying taxes) is to reject this concept of priority. Our instinct is against it. We object to the taking of our property by organized society just as we do when a single unit of society commits the act. In the latter case we unhesitatingly call the act robbery, a malum in se. It is not the law which in the first instance defines robbery, it is an ethical principle, and this the law may violate but not supersede. If by the necessity of living we acquiesce to the force of law, if by long custom we lose sight of the immorality, has the principle been obliterated? Robbery is robbery, and no amount of words can make it anything else. -- Frank Chodorov, Out of Step: The Autobiography of an Individualist [1962]

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FREEDOM BIOGRAPHY: FRANK CHODOROV Frank Chodorov: Champion of Liberty by Aaron Steelman Foundation for Economic Education Frank Chodorov: A Libertarian's Libertarian by Joseph Stromberg Antiwar.com Book Review: Selected Writings of Frank Chodorov by Edmund A. Opitz Foundation for Economic Education Source of Rights by Frank Chodorov Future of Freedom Foundation The Income Tax: The Root of All Evil by Frank Chodorov Future of Freedom Foundation Taxation Is Robbery by Frank Chodorov Ludwig von Mises Institute Imperium in Imperio by Frank Chodorov LewRockwell.com PREVIOUS BIOGRAPHIES Juan Bautista Alberdi Benjamin M. Anderson Frederic Bastiat William Blackstone Peter Thomas Bauer Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk John Bright James M. Buchanan Richard Cobden Ralph Waldo Emerson John T. Flynn Milton Friedman Garet Garrett F.A. Harper Friedrich A. Hayek Henry Hazlitt Patrick Henry David Hume W.H. Hutt John Jay Thomas Jefferson William Stanley Jevons Israel M. Kirzner Rose Wilder Lane John Locke Bernard de Mandeville Clarence Manion George Mason H.L. Mencken Carl Menger John Stuart Mill Ludwig von Mises Albert J. Nock Edmund A. Opitz Thomas Paine Ron Paul Ayn Rand Leonard E. Read David Ricardo Murray N. Rothbard Julian Simon Adam Smith Lysander Spooner William Graham Sumner Henry David Thoreau Marie-Ésprit Léon Walras George Washington Max Weber E.G. West

Upcoming FFF Appearances June 13 (Sunday) James Bovard 6:00 p.m. EST, C-SPAN2 Bovard speaks about his book Terrorism & Tyranny June 17 (Thursday) Jacob G. Hornberger 8:35 p.m. EST, KBND 1110, Bend, Oregon June 22 (Tuesday) Jacob G. Hornberger 10:15 a.m. EST, KOMY 1340 AM, Santa Cruz, California June 29 (Tuesday) Jacob G. Hornberger 7:30 p.m. EST, KID 590 AM, Idaho Falls, Idaho Subscribe & Support Subscribe to FFF Email Update. Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe email. Donate to FFF Contact Us The Future of Freedom Foundation 11350 Random Hills Road Suite 800 Fairfax VA 22030 Tel. (703) 934-6101 Fax (703) 352-8678 E-mail: fff@fff.org www.fff.org © 2003 The Future of Freedom Foundation. All rights reserved.