The Law

To the point! Explains the foundation of law that stands today.

I found this an excellent review of historical thinking prior to the industrial revolution. As I read books written in the 1800s I see the thoughts of the time. Unfortunately, most writers did not take into consideration that our various civilizations, and cultures came about on the backs of slaves. Slavery allowed the Greek Republic to bloom before Christ. I believe most just assumed that slavery though wrong, was a necessary evil. However today we face a different reality, we still have slavery but we no longer need it to build culture, due to robotics and automation. We need to change the law, not to take from the rich and give to the poor, but to provided incentives for the people who own the factors of productions (companies, stocks, and resources) to share these resources via ownership transference to the common worker, and not to the state, as in socialism. I think as a people we can make this happen without a violent revolution, because if we can not have full employment in the future, how does the common person purchase the goods and services available. I would state that improvements in technology, along with automation and robotics will eventually eliminate most jobs.

Nothing to say, except that these are truths long forgotten.

Bastiat saw the world with clarity while the rest of us still take the world for granted and either accept or not accept the world because of our own confirmation of biases. Like his other works What Is Seen and What is not Seen (e.g. The Broken Window Effect) and The Law (or perversion of it), he merely speaks of what should be obvious. Bastiat influenced later economists such as von Mises, Rothbard, Hazlitt, Sowell, and Hayek. The fact that he is not taught in our schools reveals a failure of our educational system. Teach Marx if you want but teach Bastiat too!

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.

This book is an essay by French economist Frederic Bastiat written in 1850. The book clearly explains the true role of law in a free society and critiques the perversion of law by socialists and collectivists. The law should exist to collectively provide defense of liberty, property, and individual rights. The law is perverted when it does other things which inevitably infringe on liberty, property, and individual rights--no matter how noble or charitable on the surface. The book makes clear so much of what is wrong with US government today and once again proves there is nothing new under the sun.

Good thought provoking book. Definitely one to have on your bookshelf.

I first encountered and read this extraordinary book when an adult student taking a course in American history and the development of its Judeo-Christian legal system in the mid 1980s. The Law and the courses other required reading, The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution, (W. Cleon Skousen, author) absolutely and dramatically changed my path as an American citizen. They provided me a core education in my nation and many aspects of world history that either had not been taught to me or had fallen on deaf ears. (I fear the former more true.) I understand that Civics as a required course for high school graduation is a subject long obsolete. In 2020, we may well reconsider what is required from those who teach our progeny. I cannot rightly offer an eloquent critique of The Law but to advise you to get it, read it (even with a good dictionary or thesarus at hand), keep a permanent copy, and give one to those who seek your vote. (For them, you may give pop quizes.

Law is justice. Though written in 1850, this persuasive argument for Natural Law and the free market by French economist, Frédéric Bastiat is, still, absolutely relevant today. What is the solution for a freer more prosperous society, limited government or, the socialistic, legal plunder of wealth that is growing like a cancer across our great nation? Three factors that are crucial, as quoted from Thomas DiLorenzo in the forward: Bastiat believed that all human beings possessed the God-given natural rights of `individuality, liberty, [and] property. And, from Bastiat himself: The mission of Law is not to oppress persons and plunder them of their property, even though the Law may be acting in a philanthropic spirit. Its mission is to protect property. As a personal witness of corrupt law, he quotes varied interventionists throughout history followed by an argument against, at times with a touch of sarcasm. Personality, liberty and property are superior to all human legislation; it is not because men have made laws that these exist, for they existed since the beginning. This God given Law (Natural Law) reaps prosperity, however, as we have seen, it can also be perverted. A Good accompaniment: Lex Rex by Samuel Rutherford

A great reminder of what is Law and how it works and how it can and is abused. Perfect for the times we are living. I recommend this to anyone who wonders why, the more laws are passed, the more we slip into lawlessness.