Friedlander, Pete. “Cartoon of the Day: People vs. Government”. AEI Ideas, 2013.
The Law
Claude Frederic Bastiat holds the belief that the law is perverted, and its mission is to punish. He goes on to state that the law is perverted from naked greed and misconceived philanthropy. Life is our gift from God and we as mankind are responsible for supporting, developing, and protecting it. Since we are here naturally before the law was, existence, faculties, and assimilation are superior to any human legislation. Bastiat defines law as “the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense”. This means that we have the right to defend our person, liberty, and property and this is accomplished by organizing a common force to defend them. The law cannot have another purpose than to defend the natural forces that have put it in its place. It especially cannot serve the purpose of destroying these aspects. He says that if a government was established on the basis of acting solely within the rights, they were given naturally then that government would be simple, restrained, economical, just, and stable regardless of any political stance or party.
State Intervention
Bastiat claims that if the state would not intervene in private affairs, then the basic wants and needs of citizens would be met naturally. I don’t agree with his conclusion because I believe that without state intervention in the form of aid, assistance, and order, more population, capital, and labor displacements would occur. Human nature is inherently evil and selfish and believing that issues would sort themselves out naturally without intervention is thinking too highly and unrealistically of mankind. I do however agree that the problems that governments create do in turn enlarge their responsibilities further. This serves as a never-ending cycle.
Morality in Law
A solid argument that Bastiat makes is that laws need to be respected in society, but they cannot be respected without being respectable. In order to be respectable, they must not make people choose between following their own morality or following the law. The problem with this logic is that not all people share the same basis of morality. It is subjective. Issues today like immigration, poverty, homelessness, and abortion are all moral issues at their core. They cause some of the greatest division in our country because different morals lay on differing sides of the arguments. Any law made on these issues will cause a people group to be morally torn. Morals are no longer strictly based on a common religion or faith.
Politics in Government
I highly agree with the point being made that politics have an exaggerated importance. He states that “the law may take away from one party in order to give to another, help itself to the wealth acquired by all the classes that it may increase that of one class”. Still to this day, policies are put in place for political gain and take away from the main goal which is the well-being and keeping of the natural rights for all. This further proves his point of naked greed and misconceived philanthropy perverting the law. If the government itself has these principles, then men themselves will individually adopt them and do things for their own profit and gain. Citizens cannot be expected to behave higher than the law itself allows its own government to.
Politicians vs. Man
Bastiat holds the view that politicians divide mankind into two categories: politicians and other men. These politicians view the other men as lacking any principles of action and discernment, lacking initiative and impulses, and simply being idle matter and atoms. However, they separate themselves into an elite category of organized, legislative, discoverers that have creativity, power, and initiative to form the common men into a functioning society. I completely agree with this view of the higher-up officials and that they view citizens as subjects in an experiment. Their lives are so out of touch with most people’s realities that major issues like the opioid epidemic for example continue to progress because it is not a blaring factor in their day-to-day lives. However, if they do by some means view a man to be capable of actions, they view this as a fatal flaw. This same action in themselves is of course not a fatal flaw, but one that makes them a great leader and elite.
Morality of Man
Bastiat goes on to compare and contrast the views of different philosophers and how they classify human nature. Their classification of morality forms their view on the role of the government and its applied system. As I previously mentioned, I agree with the view that the human race is thwarted and evil by nature. Bastiat cites this as a downfall of politicians separating themselves, but I would argue that politicians' elated egos are a consequence of their nature as well. This morality is why we need the law to combat evil nature by making legislature that defends natural rights like person, liberty, and property. Society responds to power and authority, regardless of whether that power is thwarted or misplaced, which will inevitably be the case. Bastiat claims that law is ultimately defined as “justice”, but how unfortunate are we that this justice can never be rightfully endowed because of the perversion of the law and mankind itself?