Frederick Bastiat has an extreme view of government. He views any law outside of a common law as legal plunder or in another word the law performs for the profit of one citizen and to end your others this is an act that cannot be performed without committing a crime. His idea isn’t terrible, but he does overlook some of the more realistic means of creating and sustaining a productive society. We see this in the lecture video about his petition to the government as a candle and light maker were the view, he was taking from the manufacturer standpoint is that the government needs to ban the competitor being the son in this instance to promote the domestic manufacturing and commerce.
Frederick has the right idea in my opinion of what society should look like in protecting the liberty freedom and private property and it aligns with The United States constitution in ways, but he does still have an extremist view that anything the government does that's outside of these values is plunder. But this is a double-edged sword, and he does have a good point to make that anything outside of protecting the liberties of an individual can be something to take advantage of individuals outside of the ring of control.
The idea of great fiction is the idea that everyone is in favor of profiting off of the labor of others. This is quite the statement but even in today's world looking at the working class in the United States it's safe to say that approximately 50% of your paycheck will be paid in taxes by the federal, state, and local level. Now, what those different levels do with our tax dollars is anyone's guess end is also used for paying welfare and unemployment. When we look at the idea of this great fiction and people living off the labor of others the wealth to be distributed is essentially only created by small percentage of the population to provide for the other half this order lines itself with socialistic economic views that a certain percentage controls the wealth to be distributed to the whole population.
Bastiat goes on to say that the government is in control of your destiny and is glad to be the judge. This just goes on to his extremist view of the government being this overlord of your life and controlling anything that may be deemed as a freedom. He says that the government, in order to help you a little must take a lot and then this is in order of taking and then giving not vice versa. But this is not entirely true in today's world where is taxpayers if there is a need, the government is there to help to a degree without stripping us of our liberties. Bastiat also has this paradox where the government is there to help the people, but the government can't help the people without the people now this is a string of words but essentially it means that the government is there to be the actor, but the action cannot be taken place without the public. This is true with how we choose our representatives to best represent our views and not only an Electoral College standpoint when it comes to voting for a president but also in just organized justice which Bastiat talks about in his writings.
Bastiat goes on to explain that government does not create value or generate wealth so it cannot restore more to the public than what it has taken he says that it is ridiculous for us to appear before it as beggars now this simply just means that we're ultimately in power because without the public and the people the government has no power to reign this goes back to the previous statement that I made the talks about an organized group of justice representing the people.
He continues to go and say that the government cannot benefit the public without hurting it first and this is because it can't add value it can only take away or restore to the amount for which it has taken but in the case of the United States, we just raise our debt ceiling lol. Bastiat says that government should be nothing, but a common force organized to serve everyone and to cause justice and security to reign. Which is not a bad way of looking at it and he has the right idea; his opposing views are just a little extreme to the government stripping away at our individual rights and constantly taking from us to give back. Some concluding thoughts on Frederick Bastiat’s writings are that he's pro individualism that is organized through a just common force that provides security to reign.