Frederic Bastiat Quotes
Here I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual and moral self-improvement. Instead, it is demanded that the law should directly extend welfare, education, and morality throughout the nation. This is the seductive lure of socialism. And I repeat: these two uses of the law are in direct contradiction to each other.
Bastiat, Frédéric. The Law. Foundation for Economic Education, 1950.
Before America, many political thinkers believed that popular sovereignty and liberty are incompatible concepts—that the tyranny of the majority would trample liberty of all kinds of minorities: intellectuals, the wealthy, different religion, smaller religions, original thinking, cultural independence. However, Mandelbaum’s theory is that the social safety net, makes everyone wealthy to enough an extent that most will not trample others liberties for an even greater wealth. Inequality of wealth is tolerable if all have a modicum of a standard of living, but if some or many do not even have that, other’s liberties are less important than their own survival.
He was a major critic of Socialism but he did acknowledge that the Socialist Movement had made major contributions.
This was a fascinating definition of socialism in that it was not an absolute definition. It was to the ediors simply and improvement over the status quo in certain areas. Also, unlike Communism, democracy is a required element of Socialism.
Martin had this facinating idea of balancing capitalism and communism in American Society. All youth would be in national service to the state for 8 years during that time why will be assigned by the state to producing and providing the necessary goods and services for evryone else. And these would be goven to all as an entitlement. (She had calculated that is what it took to produce the "necessities") All adults after their national service were entitled to the necessities for life whether or not the worked. However all luxuries would be unter captialistic control. People who anted to make and sell them could do so and could earn money from doing so either as entrepraneurs, investors, employees. So all who wished luixuries would have to earn them in a classic captialsitic system, but the social safety net of the necessities would be free to all.
She was proposing s radically different pattern of work and economic structure--one of the few really original ideas. All Americans between 18-26 years of age would serve the nation and be assigned to producing and providing the necessities of life for all of society.—Food, Shelter, Health Care etc, See Quotation 644625 for more details,
Claude-Frédéric Bastiat was a French economist, writer and a prominent member of the French Liberal School.
