Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. But I do dispute their right to impose these plans upon us by law – by force – and to compel us to pay for them with our taxes.' Content īastiat argues in the work that a government consists only of the people within or authorizing it, therefore it has no legitimate powers beyond those that people would individually have: The resulting statism is 'based on this triple hypothesis: the total inertness of mankind, the omnipotence of the law, and the infallibility of the legislator.' The relationship between the public and the legislator becomes 'like the clay to the potter.' Bastiat says, 'I do not dispute their right to invent social combinations, to advertise them, to advocate them, and to try them upon themselves, at their own expense and risk. Whereas justice has precise limits, philanthropy is limitless and thus government can grow endlessly when that becomes its function. The law becomes perverted when it is used to violate the rights of the individual, when it punishes one's right to defend himself against a collective effort of others to legislatively enact laws which basically have the same effect of plundering. In The Law, Bastiat says 'each of us has a natural right – from God – to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.' The State is a 'substitution of a common force for individual forces' to defend this right.

Frederic bastiat