What is plunder according to Bastiat? According to Bastiat, legal plunder is when the law "takes from some persons that which belongs to them, to give to others what does not belong to them." Click to see full answer.
Where did Bastiat use the phrase permanent plunder?
15 Bastiat used the phrase “la spoliation permanente” (permanent plunder) in “Property and Plunder” (July 1848), CW2, pp. 147-84 and online < /titles/2450#lf1573-02_label_218 >. 16 See the “List of Chapters”, in Frédéric Bastiat, Harmonies économiques. 2me édition.
What is the physiology of plunder according to Bastiat?
“The Physiology of Plunder.” 17 Bastiat believed that the era of theocratic plunder provided a case study of how trickery and sophistic arguments could be used to ensure compliance with the demands of the plundering class.
What is Bastiat’s legal plunder theory?
Bastiat believed that many in power use the law to commit “legalized plunder” because of pure greed. It is easier to take wealth from others instead of working to gain wealth. “Now since man is naturally inclined to avoid pain – and since labor is pain in itself – it follows that men will resort to plunder whenever plunder is easier than work.
What is plundering?
“When a portion of wealth is transferred from the person who owns it – without his consent and without compensation, and whether by force or by fraud – to anyone who does not own it, then I say that property is violated; that an act of plunder is committed. I say that this act is exactly what the law is supposed to suppress, always and everywhere.
What are the two kinds of plunder?
For there are two kinds of plunder: legal and illegal.
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group?
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
Who was Friedrich Bastiat?
Claude-Frédéric Bastiat (/bɑːstiˈɑː/; French: [klod fʁedeʁik bastja]; 30 June 1801 – 24 December 1850) was a French economist, writer and a prominent member of the French Liberal School.
Is plundering legal?
Bastiat defines legal plunder as the ability of government to steal goods from another using force. He wrote that “if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong,” that this is legal force used by the government.
How does Bastiat describe the law?
The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense.
When law and morality contradict each other the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law meaning?
When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law. These two evils are of equal consequence, and it would be difficult for a person to choose between them. The nature of law is to maintain justice.
What did Frederic Bastiat believe?
He championed free trade and believed governments possessed no legitimate power beyond protecting individual rights. Bastiat was elected to the national legislative assembly soon after the French Revolution of 1848.
What is Bastiat's main thesis of his writing?
The main underlying theme of Bastiat's writings was that the free market was inherently a source of "economic harmony" among individuals, as long as government was restricted to the function of protecting the lives, liberties, and property of citizens from theft or aggression.
What is Bastiat's main point regarding economics?
As he wrote in one of his numerous letters to Cobden, “Rather than the fact of free trade alone, I desire for my country the general philosophy of free trade. While free trade itself will bring more wealth to us, the acceptance of the general philosophy that underlies free trade will inspire all needed reforms.”
What is plunder law?
Republic Act No. 7080 defines the crime of plunder as the accumulation of iII- gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt criminal acts in the aggregate amount of 1'50,000,000.00 by a public official.
What is the difference between looting and stealing?
Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting.
What are types of looting?
The meaning of looting refers to the act of stealing goods during a war, a riot, or in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Examples of looting include the stealing of a television from an electronics store after a hurricane, or soldiers lifting food from a local market in a war zone.
What was the corollary of the idea of plunder?
A corollary of his ideas about plunder was his view of class, or the specific relationships which developed at any given historical moment between the group which benefited from institutionalised plunder and the group who were being plundered.
Who influenced Bastiat's ideas?
Bastiat’s ideas also probably influenced the thinking of his younger friend and colleague Gustave de Molinari who began to develop his own ideas about class analysis in more detail after Bastiat’s death in December 1850.
What did Bastiat think of the socialist state?
Bastiat thought that this was unsustainable in the long run and in his famous essay on “The State” (June, September 1848) called the socialist-inspired redistributive state “the great fiction by which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else.” 21.
What is Bastiat's theory of class?
The basis for Bastiat’s theory of class was the notion of plunder which he defined as the taking of another person’s property without their consent by force or fraud. Those who lived by plunder constituted “les spoliateurs” (the plunderers) or “la classe spoliatrice” (the plundering class). Those whose property was taken constituted “les spoliés” ...
When did Bastiat use the phrase "social or class war"?
Bastiat first began to use the phrase “social or class war” in 1847 and used it several times in early 1849 in speeches in the Chamber of Deputies and in his campaign for re-election in April 1849. 9 In French the key phrase is “L’échange librement débattu de service contre service.”. 10 ES2 1, pp. 000.
When did Bastiat first use the term "classe spoliatrice"?
1 Bastiat’s first use of the terms “la classe spoliatrice” and “les classes spoliées” occurred in “The Law” (July 1850) and then in EH 17 “Services privés, services publiques”, CW5 (forthcoming).
Who was the leader of the anti-protectionism movement?
Bastiat took the ideas of Say, Comte, and Dunoyer about plunder and the plundering class which he had absorbed in his youth and developed them further during his campaign against protectionism between early 1843 and the beginning of 1848.
What does Bastiat say about laws?
Laws are not handed to us on a silver platter; they must be conceived, created, and upheld by people. Yet those in power are not demi‐gods. What Bastiat describes as the fatal tendency is universal. Politicians share that same flaw in their nature.#N#Bastiat laments that often “the law is made by one man or class of men” who are entrusted to make laws. Since everyone wishes to live with as little labor as possible, Bastiat explains that those in charge of the laws invariably will use them to plunder the population at large.
What does Bastiat say about the right to defend?
Bastiat, like many natural rights theorists, argues that God has given every person a right to defend their person, property, and liberty from the attacks of others . Since every person individually has the right to protect themselves, Bastiat explains, then they are perfectly justified in banding together and organizing a system that provides for every member’s defense against their personality, liberty, or property.
What does Bastiat say about the organization of the natural right of lawful defence?
If it is unjust for one person to steal from another, then it cannot magically be made acceptable if any collective force or government does the same. Bastiat, throughout his essay, repeats this line: “the law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defence,” nothing more, nothing less.
What is the purpose of Bastiat's essay?
According to Bastiat, the law has been diverted from its original purpose of securing justice and instead has become a tool of promoting injustice.
What was the name of the essay that Bastiat wrote?
Towards the end of Bastiat’s eventful career as a journalist, economist, and politician, and despite suffering from tuberculosis, he penned one of his most famous essays, simply entitled The Law.
Can the law become a tool of plunder?
The law, when steered away from its proper sphere, can become a tool of plunder. Unlike illegal plunder, legal plunder has the power of the state to back it. Bastiat explains, “Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, and gendarmes at the service of plunderers.”.
Who is the most incisive attack on socialists and protectionists?
The Law. Frédéric Bastiat’s The Law is one of the most incisive attacks on socialists and protectionists. Bastiat was one of France’s most passionate classical liberals. The 19th‐century Frenchman, Frederic Bastiat, dedicated his life to articulating the principles undergirding a free society.
Why did Bastiat believe that many in power use the law to commit “legalized plunder”?
Bastiat believed that many in power use the law to commit “legalized plunder” because of pure greed. It is easier to take wealth from others instead of working to gain wealth.
Why is legalized plunder so prevalent?
Legalized plunder has been so prevalent throughout history because often groups who are initially the victim of legalized plunder try to gain power not to put an end to it, but so they can use the law to take the property of others.
Why do some people use the law to plunder?
Some use the law to engage in ‘legalized plunder’ not for selfish reasons but because they believe by taking wealth and property from others they’ll be able to help those in need.
What did Bastiat believe?
Bastiat believed that philanthropy could be achieved by a society without the use of legalized plunder. In other words, just because he was against legalized plunder to help those in need, did not mean he was against helping those in need.