The Law

It is a wonderful document in history.

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 Profound words from a man who died in the 1850s. The Law remains one of the classics of its age for a reason. People and human nature remain the same, and men are always looking for benefits they didnt work for at the expense of another. Hence the hall mark of socialism is that it steals from one and gives to another. When an individual researches the topic honestly they soon discover this truth: Socialism in any form will always degrade into tyranny and the loss of liberty. Many socialists have nothing but good intentions (Bastiat makes this clear). However, it is important that intentions are only good for the intent of the person, and are absolutely no guarantee for truth. Bastiats common sense and precise logic reveal to his audience what socialism really is. Unmasked are all the twisted logic and slight of hand. In the end anyone who reads this with a pure heart will understand socialism, and why its a poisonous coctail to liberty.

Values are timeless...and history repeats itself

Bastiat is a must read for everyone. Inexpensive and a quick read. Plunder abounds, so buy this book for everyone you know.

This proto-libertarian writing by Bastiat stands along with Alexis de Tocqueville as the greatest 19th century political writing contributions to our country. Bastiat is easier to read and much faster. The whole of it in a sitting can be trying to read, though it did sparkle throughout. In any event, Bastiats view would likely be a libertarianism that few would suggest today. For example, even most modern libertarians and conservatives with libertarian streaks like lead-free paint. He might say it interferes with individual property and liberty rights. I really do not know where he would hold on that because though it would interfere with private property, but lead paint clearly was a threat to us, particularly small children and a 20th century Bastiat might appreciate it. Heres a taste of Bastiat I copied onto my computer: Law was the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense. [T]he common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission that that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force—for the same reason—cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups. The law has been perverted by the influence of two entirely different causes: stupid greed and false philanthropy. . . [E]very time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. . . We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want to religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain. Like or love it? Youll like or love him. Offended and love Obamacare and federal governments growth? You will think he is a proto-wing-nut.

The antithesis to Communist Manifesto written the same decade.

This classic commentary on European Law, especially in France, after the French Revolution had destroyed an oppressive monarchy and the country was faced with another oppressive regime. This little book is an acid commentary on law disguised as social and economic oppression, which in a few years produced another critic of law under royal and aristocratic rule: the founding handbook of Austrian Economics: Carl Mengers Principles of Economics. The mistaken impression is given by the advocates of Austrian Economics that Bastiets The Law is a protest against the State in any form, including the government of the United States and other forms of democratic government. But it is well known that Bastiet admired the government of the United States and praised it for its just laws (except for slavery) and its concern for human rights, including economic rights. The book offers nothing significant in economics, even though advocates of Austrian Economics claim that Bastiets critique of Law would apply to certain laws of the United States. His work is directed to laws under a monarchy, in which laws favor the aristocracy. There is every evidence that he would be quite comfortable in a government of the people, by the prople and for the people. The Foreward to the book by Thomas DiLorenzo is not only deceptive, but positively erroneous. The Foreward is really a diatribe against what the Dilorenzo calls statism, and it is clear that his words are directed at the Congress of the United States, which makes the laws of this country. He hints that the government of the United States is a collectivity, which is another name for Socialism. That certainly was not the view of Frederic Bastiet. Bastiets most virulent accusations are not directed at Thomas Jefferson, the Congress of the United States or the Attorney-General,but against Saint-Just, Robespierre, Lapellitier, all associated with the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution. These set up a system of legal plunder and an autocracy that sent ordinary citizens to the guillotine. DiLorenzo gives the impression that Bastiets The Law is directed at the government and laws of the United States. No one could really object to the book as it stands, but its publication by the Ludwig von Mises Institute makes clear the intent of its publication: it is part of a campaign on the part of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, the Acton Institute and the devotees of Austrian Economics to place the economy of the United States solely in the hands of entrepreneurs, unmindful of the fact that it was Entrepreneurs who created slavery, child labor, and other social injustices in this country and were put out of business by Supreme Court decisions in Muller v. Oregon(workers rights), United States v. the Darby Lumber Company(child labor), and Brown v. Board of Education(segregation), and laws that followed upon those Supreme Court decisions - - like the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bastiets descripion of Law in the last pages of the book is the finest part of the book and it captures in his virile prose what a free government should be. But the Ludwig von Mises Institute does not want the economy of any country regulated by just laws, - - - only by the action and interests of Entrepreneurs. It was to free the economy of the country from an economics decided by Entrpreneurs that this country was founded, and it has taken 200 years to undo the social, economic and political claims forged by several generations of Entrepreneurs, who either created economic monopolies or built their economic advantage on the economic disadvantages of others. The Enron scandal and the Bernie Madoff fiasco are two current examples of a certain kind of Entrepreneurship, but there are others less known that have not hit the headlines. The recent movie The Wolf of Wall Street highlights the methods and intent of entrepreneurship run wild, and how the just laws of a nation safeguard a just economy. The Law is a good book to read, if you ignore the Foreward, which gives the book a twist never intended by its author. One must consult Bastiets Economic Sophisms and his Economic Harmonies to capture his witty and insightful grasp upon the issue of a national economy. His admiration for a government of the people, by the people, and for the people indicates the direction in which his economic genius was going - and certainly not as one of the fathers and founders of a free market economy. Most of his blasts on economic matters came from his exile in England, far from the terror of the Republic of Louis Napolean. Father Clifford Stevens Archdiocese of Omaha

Im amazed when I read this type of material that mans inhumanity to man is nothing new. It may change its name or be less or more violent but as humans, we always seem to organize in one of two ways. Those that want to tell others how to live and those that prefer self-direction. Bastiat makes the case that socialism/communism/marxism/statism, whatever you want to call it, has been around well over 200 years now. It hits the same stumbling blocks now as it did then. If youre looking for something that supports the argument that social governance vs. free government is wrong from a historical perspective, youll find some support here.

The Law is a name that doesnt turn a person on to read this book. The book itself is a reflection of our present day culture that is in need of a renewal of the values that this nation once held dear. As a young man I heard men that I looked up to say things like the lord willing we will have a good crop . These were men who were not church going people but the culture praised hard work,truth,and generally values that dealt with having good character. Women were respected and children protected from bad language and men had honor. The present generation and the ones that came before have been on a slow downward path that this man MR. Bastiat is warning his nation France about . Our nation was the greatest nation ever to bring a people to real freedom but we have lost it to the desire for free stuff and we no longer have a love for the things we create with the work of our hands. If the culture will return to the founders values there is hope. I am 73 and dont think it will happen in my life time, but could if The Law written by Frederic Bastiat were to be in braced by the home ,the church, and the government there would be hope.