"THE LAW" by Frederic Bastiat is a great book on aspects of society and government that are important for every citizens to know and frame in their mind. This is also a good companion book to "Economics in One Lesson." The idea of what government can and should do and how it protects justice in a unified way are important to our republic. The Government must a be a unified group of people that together enforces the agreed to laws and rules of many individuals.
The obsessive discussion of the idea called "legal plunder" within the book is really the argument for Capitalism and against Socialism and hand-outs. Where these ideas come into play in today's political climate are debatable but the arguments put forward in the book explain why a free-market is necessary.
The entire book is a logical call to action that we must destroy ANY socialist tendencies before they even start and why Capitalism leads to the greatest growth a country can and will ever achieve.
The definition of Capitalism is as follows:
- An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
In this definition, we have absolutely no room for the government equalize, there must be winners and losers. Bastiat argues that we must allow competition and the free-market to advance the state. It has been proven many times over that a Socialism and Communism lead to the destruction of the individual identity even though it appears that it would do the opposite before logical thought and the practice of it begins.
The individual's OPPORTUNITY TO ACHIEVE greater status or to achieve greatness in the world and in the market is fundamental to a healthy nation. While it may seem the opposite by those who do not look at examples, the even distribution of wealth is not a system that works if we are to have those that aim to excel, prosper and push our country into the future. This basically lies in an important word: incentive.
Why does one many work to achieve excellence? To build a better world for himself and this in turn creates a nation of individuals committed to excellence in their given sector of the market and moves our nation to ever higher levels of achievement. Though greed and abuse occurs, it can and will occur in every type of nation. The idea of greed as an argument against capitalism is like saying "bad people make things bad." Some people will abuse the system both legally and illegally but it seems in our system of laws or "agreed to rules" we have found ways of mitigating the monopoly, the abuse of the average worker and more.
"THE LAW" is an argument against "legal plunder" and for Capitalism, individual achievement and freedom.