#Frederic bastiat free#

All these plans as a whole - with their common aim of legal plunder - constitute socialism.”Īs noted in the opening quote, it’s not that Bastiat disagreed with combating poverty, making education widely available or helping those in need.

#Frederic bastiat free#

“Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on.

“Legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways,” he explained. In turn, these ambitions result in politicians turning to “legal plunder,” the forceful taking from some to give to others regardless of the consequences or morality of doing so. While the law should serve to protect the rights of individuals, he argued, it was increasingly being hijacked by those with much broader ambitions for government. Bastiat warned that, “It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.” The book is a must-read for all interested in understanding the folly of socialism and big government.

Frederic Bastiat, economist and statesman, born in Bayonne, France in 1801, championed individual rights and freedom of choice above all else.īastiat’s most famous work, “The Law,” was published in 1850, the year he died.