The Law

One of the best essays ever on the proper role of government.

This book is an interesting read. It can be little difficult to follow sometimes because of the authors reference to other historical people and economists of the period (1850). The author was French and this book has been translated (quite well, I think). The book is only 88 pages and I got through it in a few hours. Im sure if I were interested, I could have gone more slowly and taken notes or researched the people the author referenced. If you are interested in Libertarian ideas or believe that the government has become too big, powerful and intrusive, you will probably like this book. While Im not a Libertarian, Im a fan of economics and probably lean a little Austrian School and I enjoyed reading this book. Keynesians will probably like this book, Marxists...not so much. I hope this review was useful to you!

The one dissenter of the philosophers of his day. Bastiat considered the periods just before, during and after the French revolution. He has a very common sense and very practical God fearing thought process to mankind and the rules we make up while sharing his respect and admiration for the ways of God, the Creator.This man will help any American to see what is true and good about the Constitution for the United States. After all, France adopted our constitution shortly after we did. ~A United States born Natural person

Its amazing that something written around 1850 would be so prophetic, with feelings of deja vu every other page. A must read for anyone interested in keeping the heavy hand of the state off our backs, and in preserving individual choice in our lives. The prose is, of course, mid-19th century, and the country he discusses is the France of that time, with the Socialists having come into view, but it is entirely relevant to America from about 1930 onwards, particularly now when the Socialists (still here in spite of their historic failures) are in charge.

Read this and give copies to your congressman and senators. This book was published in 1850 to describe the French socialists of Bastiats country, but those politicians arent that much different than ours today. Bastiat is one of the most quotable economists ever. The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else. When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will. Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone. These are just a few of Bastiats gems. Read this short book. The prose is excellent.

One of the best books I ever read. Bastiat is a sheer genius! We have been swindled, our liberties have been chipped away and our freedom has been usurped by the government that in the name of justice robs the talented and just, creates a huge spread for itself and gives a few morsels here and there to the dumb, lazy and degenerate mob which by default is just as unjust as the government as it contributes to this very robbery by electing the government into the public office. And this entire enterprise is backboned on the pseudo-academia - the basket-weaving Ph.D.s of the basket-weaving universities who day after day crank out a study after as study to provide theoretical support for this mass injustice. On behalf of the American nation, I would like to thank everyone that participated in publishing this amazing book. P.S. I would also highly recommend the following books: 1. Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman 2. Freedom and Prosperity in the 21st Century by George Stasen and Zviad Kliment Lazarashvili 3. The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek 4. Liberalism by Ludwig von Mises 5. American Heroes by Zviad Kliment Lazarashvili

Bastiat is a magnificent thinker and writer. His ideas about the role of law and law as the protection against plundering by some against others, and the perversion of law to aid the powerful at the expense of the less powerful, are timeless. He wrote around the time of the 1848 French Revolution and was personally in the thick of it as an elected official, and passionately interested in persuading his fellow countrymen not to pursue self-defeating economic policies such as trade tariffs, monopolies and misguided government “philanthropy” — all of which he argues — successfully in my view— to be unjust to society in general. His fear, he writes, is that the revolutionaries were itching to sock it to the people they saw as socking it to them, and in the process of doing so would repeat the same mistakes as the government they were ousting, and thus set the stage for the next revolution, ad infinitum.

Bastiat warns us not to kid ourselves about a kind, gentle, caring government. Like George Washington, Bastiat reminds us that law means force, and that any appeal to the law is ultimately an appeal to force. In appealing to the law, therefore, we must ask ourselves if we would be justified in using force to vindicate our appeal. Life, liberty, and property, Bastiat argues, are the rights which God has given to each individual by virtue of the fact that the individual exists, and that with or without government, an individual is justified in defending his or her life, liberty, and property. Ideally, governments should exist to defend these three basic God-given rights. As an individual, I cannot spend all of my time defending my life, liberty, and property, nor can my neighbors. Government is born when my neighbors and I come together to hire a sheriff to defend these rights full-time for us. The sheriffs authority to defend these rights on our behalf is derived from the authority of each of us individually to protect ourselves in these rights. Because government derives its authority from the aggregrate authority of individual citizens, government should not be allowed to do for me what I cannot legally do for myself. This is the foundation of Bastiats argument, and when taken to its natural conclusion, it shows us that redistribution-of-wealth schemes that the government forces upon some members of society to benefit others are a potential threat to a free people. Social security, welfare, and other government entitlements are all examples of this. Bastiat referred to such government programs as legalized plunder which ultimately creates far more social problems than it solves. The recent presidential race has shown us just how weak and dependent Americans have become. Just as Bastiat predicted, every little social group is clamoring to get its own share of government entitlements, and politician are clamoring to pander to these groups in exchange for political power, even if it means continuing the disastrous economic course of deficits and staggering public debt which may someday threaten the country with bankruptcy and economic collapse. We should learn the lesson of communism--it isnt governments job to take care of us. Being responsible for our own subsistence, including the inherent risks involved in such responsibility, is the price we must pay for freedom and prosperity. If we succumb to the lure of government-provided security by means of legalized plunder, we will one day find ourselves bereft of the freedom which we once took for granted. Bastiats classic shows us how to preserve a free society and avoid the consequences of legalized injustice.

A great reminder of what is Law and how it works and how it can and is abused. Perfect for the times we are living. I recommend this to anyone who wonders why, the more laws are passed, the more we slip into lawlessness.

This was recommended by Mark Moss via his YouTube channel, and I must say, that I regret not knowing about this dynamite of a book sooner. Read this, then view the world, knowing why it is, as it is.