With the ever changing world of economics an individual can get lost in its fast-paced world. To understand economics one could study the ideas of Frederic Bastiat. Bastiat had profound views and wrote many essays where he voiced his opinions about the government and the implementation and role of the government in a society. He questioned the morals and intentions of the government multiple times in his readings. I believe that these are very modern thoughts and seemed to be one of the first people to truly question the government. While his essays were written in 1848, they are still relevant in today's society as more and more people are beginning to become skeptical of the Government and its ways.
Bastiat claims that the people are still being oppressed but the oppressor no longer acted directly on the victims. He believes that the government, or law, is merely an intermediary between the tyrant and its victims. He was also very surprised by the public’s blindness to the way they are being treated and oppressed. Bastiat says “I fear we are in this respect the dupes of one of the strangest illusions that have ever taken possession of the human mind.”(Bastiat, p.98) However, people in today's society are starting to realize and speak out on the injustices of the government. Whether they have directly researched Bastiat’s views or not, he was one of the pioneers of this thinking. Without Bastiat publicizing his thoughts and view, there would have evolved and expanded so quickly into the modern world.
Many of Bastiat's ideologies are still currently affecting the world and society that we live in. He states “Government is that great fiction, in which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.”(Bastiat, p.99) This is still a relevant and accurate statement for not only the government, but also large corporations and institutions within the society. Many institutions in America thrive on the expense of their workers and even those who are competing against them in the marketplace. We are taught in today's teaching that power over others will bring greater success and to make it to the top no matter what cost or whose expense that may bring. The government claims to exist to provide everything that is needed to its citizens, yet without the citizens, it would have nothing to provide to them. This supports Bastiat's views as the government takes money from the masses with taxes to distribute it to others within the society. Everyone lives at the expense of everyone else.
Fredric Bastiat was a believer in natural law, stating that every individual was born with the right to personhood, liberty, property, and self-defense to defend the rights one is given to them by God. He published an essay named ‘The Law’ which was a series of arguments against socialism. He talks about how unjust the law can be, for example, if the law takes money from one person and distributes it to another in a way that would otherwise be illegal, then that law is unjust. He made similar points to this statement in ‘Government’ as well. In ‘The Law’ he states the belief that if the law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense, such as natural law, then the society would be the most just, simple, and least restraining way that a government could be imagined. He stands by his position on the government and suggests that instead of everybody plundering everybody, that society needs an absence of plunder in which nobody benefits from the expense of anyone else. He believes “This is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability…, which I shall proclaim with all the force in my lungs… till the day of my death.”(Bastiat, Trost, 4:47) I agree with Bastiat's opinion, however, I don't know if the society would be willing to comply or able to be trusted.
In conclusion, Bastiat is one of the pioneers of outward thinking and published many views about the government and the law and how he believes society should be run. His ideas still have a large impact and are still relevant in today's world with the ever changing views and questioning of the government. He refers to the government as a middle man for some people to benefit off of the expense of others instead of a lawful organization to protect all of its people. He believes the best government would operate more to the morals of natural law in which every citizen is born with rights and those rights should be protected and if they are not, then they have the right to self defense, even against the government.
Works Cited
Kanopiadmin. (2014, August 18). The bastiat collection: Claude Frédéric Bastiat. Mises Institute. Retrieved February 6, 2023, from https://mises.org/library/bastiat-collection