The Law

The most important idea I took from this book was the potential for a repeating cycle of intervention and coercion which follows the first attempt to improve a specific market. Once it begins, all parties it effects want their own improvements. At least on the surface you cant deny the truth of this in todays U.S. markets. Law does not create wealth, it may only redistribute...this is made very clear by the author. Consider this when thinking of price manipulations (tariffs, subsidies...etc.); who is really benefitting from this? Is it the consumer? This book is not a book on economics but a book on political inefficiencies and failures. Its a very quick read (likely just needs a few dedicated hours). I highly recommend it as an introduction to the logical way to think of politics and the role of government.

I have not read this work for 45 years. I have a greater appreciation now in light of the current political and administrative State we live in today as opposed to any other time of my life. I a ‘Just’ society it should be required reading and adherence for judges and society as a whole. I doubt the population as it exist today would even come close to grasping the importance of ‘The Law’. Thus Liberty does not exist.

Frederic Bastiat makes one infallible argument for the purpose of law and the govts role of enforcing it. Law is Justice! And Justice is not robbing one group of men for the benefit of another such as the laws of Plunder. (tariffs, subsidies, bailouts, corporate or union tax breaks) Law is Justice! Nor is law a way to enforce government driven philanthropy, essentially robbing one man of rightful claim to his own money and give it to another man to which it does not rightfully belong. SOCIALIST PLUNDER! Mr. Bastiat goes on to break down any attempt to justify socialist society or laws and leaves but one clear and well defined role for law that every freedom loving man can praise, that is that LAW IS JUSTICE! Following on with the role of Law is the need to enforce it, which is the very reason for which men make Government. Frederic Bastiat explains the limitations of govt through this very clear role of it. Govt cannot give that which it does not posses. The governments realm is that of justice and you cannot expect it produce prosperity no more than you can expect a carpenter to fix cars or a miner to build houses. The government is to prevent injustice, you cannot expect to build the economy, make men moral, and feed the hungry any more than you can expect to take fire to stone and expect corn to grow. It is not going to happen because it is not its purpose, it is not its role, it is not within its realm of possibility. Mr. Bastiat purposes a society where the economy controls the values of products, the law denies all forms of injustice towards a mans rights and the government is not a bureaucracy of special interest groups to meddle in social and economic affairs. In The Law, Frederic Bastiat defends the principle that the Law is to enforce Justice and the govt is to enforce that just Law.

Good, short read that gives another opinion that contrats the left-leaning literature coming out at the time. I recommend this for people trying to expand their own political opinions.

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.

The only real downside to this book is vocabulary and the writing style. The content is excellent, but the delivery is of a style and usage of language that modern readers are not familiar with.

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

Although written in 1850, the principles of freedom from government intrusion into our lives, could not be more appropriate in todays world. Mr. Bastiat elucidates, in 75 pages, his concept of the over-reach of the Socialist style of government, by creating laws which actually limit our rights to free expression. This short treatise should be read and reread by every citizen, and taught in history classes throughout the world. It tells in simple terms, how the government systematically erodes freedoms, and makes the populace dependent upon it for its power over its citizenry. The concept of ominous parallels in our world today, could not be more appropriate and critical to understand. The principles are great ammunition for those who wish to preserve the freedoms our forefathers fought for to bring us.

Fast Delivery!! Great quality overall.

This classic text challenges readers to think, not just about politics but even the language, and the history behind the authors words. Challenge a high school mind with a text like this on each of these fronts and todays graduating classes could rise to the day. I am a 24 year old and can only just now understand why Bastiats name rings in the annals of history and I wish I had in or before college. If you arent certain this book is what you are looking for, buy it anyway, you wont regret it for a second!