Notes from Frederick Bastiat’s Essays on Political Economy Read online

accomplish, with order and with calmness--slowly, it is true, but with certainty--the progress decreed to it.” We can accomplish great things, when Government gives us the liberty to do the things we need and want to do.

  The Solution is Liberty

  “…at whatever point of the scientific horizon I start from, I invariably come to the same thing - the solution of the social problem is in liberty. And have I not experience on my side? Cast your eye over the globe. Which are the happiest, the most moral, and the most peaceable nations? Those where the law interferes the least with private activity; where the Government is the least felt; where individuality has the most scope, and public opinion the most influence; where the machinery of the administration is the least important and the least complicated; where taxation is lightest and least unequal, popular discontent the least excited and the least justifiable; where the responsibility of individuals and classes is the most active, and where, consequently, if morals are not in a perfect state, at any rate they tend incessantly to correct themselves; where transactions, meetings, and associations are the least fettered; where labour, capital, and production suffer the least from artificial displacements; where mankind follows most completely its own natural course; where the thought of God prevails the most over the inventions of men; those, in short, who realize the most nearly this idea--That within the limits of right, all should flow from the free, perfectible, and voluntary action of man; nothing be attempted by the law or by force, except the administration of universal justice.” And it should be our goal, in our great country, to return as soon as possible to as close as we can to this state!

  Conclusion

  I hope you have enjoyed this brief look at Bastiat’s Essays on Political Economy. It is amazing to me how much of what he said is timeless – crossing international boundaries as well as still ringing true through the centuries. If you would like to read his complete work you can find it in various places on the internet, including www.Gutenberg.org.

  About the Author

  Catherine Jaime did her undergraduate work at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has taken additional economics training through the Foundation for Teaching Economics and the Foundation for Economic Education. Catherine has taught in grades K-twelve with a concentration in high school economics and government. She has authored a number of history books, and several booklets dealing with government and/or economics. She firmly believes in the importance of the U.S. Constitution and the free market, and it shows in her writings.

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  Connect with Catherine Online:

  www.CatherineJaime.com

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