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Economic Sophisms: II.9, Robbery by Subsidy

Economic Sophisms: II.9, Robbery by Subsidy Jan 21, 2015

People are finding my little book of Sophisms too theoretical, scientific, and metaphysical. Very well. Let us try the effect of a trivial, banal, and, if need be, a ruder style of writing. Convinced that the public has been duped into accepting the policy of protectionism, I have tried to prove it by an appeal to reason.

By Bastiat Institute 0
Economic Sophisms: II.8, Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc

Economic Sophisms: II.8, Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc Jan 14, 2015

This is the most common and the most deceptive of all fallacies. Real suffering is taking place in England. It comes in the train of two other events: 1. The tariff reform. 2. Two bad harvests in succession. To which of these last two circumstances is the first to be attributed? The protectionists have not failed to cry out: "It is this accursed free trade that is causing all the trouble. It promised us no end of blessings, we accepted it, and here the factories have closed, and the people are suffering: Cum hoc, ergo propter hoc." Free trade distributes in the most uniform and equitable manner the fruits that Providence grants to the labor of man. If some of these fruits are destroyed by a natural disaster, free trade nonetheless ensures the fair distribution of what remains. Men are, no doubt, less well supplied; but should the blame be laid on free trade, or on the natural disaster? Free trade acts on the same principle as insurance. When a disaster occurs, insurance spreads over a great number of men and a great many years losses that, in its absence, would have had to be borne by one individual all...

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Economic Sophisms: II.7, A Chinese Tale

Economic Sophisms: II.7, A Chinese Tale Jan 10, 2015

People bewail the greed and selfishness of our age! I, for my part, find the world, especially Paris, peopled with Deciuses. Open the thousand books, the thousand newspapers, the thousand pamphlets, that the Parisian presses spew forth every day over the country. Are they not all the work of little saints? What animation in the painting of the vices of our day! What moving concern for the masses! With what liberality the rich are invited to share with the poor, if not the poor with the rich! What a host of plans for social reforms, social improvements, social organizations! Is there any hack scribbler who is not devoting himself to the welfare of the toiling masses? For an advance of a few crowns, he will find the opportunity to indulge himself in humanitarian lucubrations. And yet people talk about the selfishness and individualism of our era! There is nothing that does not pretend to serve the well-being and the edification of the people—nothing, not even the customhouse. You think, perhaps, that it is just another instrument of taxation, like the license bureau or the tollhouse at the end of the bridge? Nothing of the kind. It is essentially an institution...

By Bastiat Institute 0
Economic Sophisms: II.6, To Artisans and Laborers

Economic Sophisms: II.6, To Artisans and Laborers Jan 7, 2015

Several newspapers have attacked me in your presence. Won't you please read my defense? I am not a distrustful person. When a man writes or speaks, I take it for granted that he believes what he is saying. And yet, as I read and reread the newspapers that have attacked me, I seem to find in them unfortunate evidence to the contrary. What is the question at issue? It is that of determining which is more advantageous for you, protectionism or free trade.

By Bastiat Institute 0
Economic Sophisms: II.5, High Prices and Low Prices

Economic Sophisms: II.5, High Prices and Low Prices Dec 17, 2014

I feel it my duty to present to the reader certain—alas, theoretical—comments on the illusions to which the expressions high prices and low prices give rise. At first glance, I know, people may be inclined to consider these comments a little abstruse; but the question is, not whether they are abstruse, but whether they are true. Now, I believe that they are not only perfectly true but particularly well suited to raise some doubts in the minds of those—by no means few in number—who have a sincere faith in the efficacy of protectionism.

By Bastiat Institute 0
Economic Sophisms: II.4, Subordinate Labor Council

Economic Sophisms: II.4, Subordinate Labor Council Nov 10, 2014

"What! You have the effrontery to demand for all citizens the right to buy, sell, barter, and exchange, to render and receive service for service, and settle on the price among themselves, on the sole condition that they carry on these transactions honestly and pay their taxes? What are you trying to do—deprive workingmen of their jobs, their wages, and their bread?"

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Economic Sophisms: II.3, The Two Hatchets

Economic Sophisms: II.3, The Two Hatchets Nov 7, 2014

Petition of Jacques Bonhomme, Carpenter, to M. Cunin-Gridaine, Minister of Commerce Mr. Manufacturer and Cabinet Minister: I am a carpenter, as Jesus was; I wield the hatchet and the adze to serve you.

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Economic Sophisms: II.2, Two Systems of Ethics

Economic Sophisms: II.2, Two Systems of Ethics Nov 3, 2014

Having arrived—if he does arrive—at the end of the preceding chapter, the reader may well exclaim: "Well, was I wrong to accuse economists of being dry and cold? What a portrait of mankind! Plunder is represented as an omnipresent force, almost a normal phenomenon, assuming every guise, practiced under any pretext, legal or extralegal, perverting to its own purposes all that is most sacred, exploiting weakness and credulity by turns, and constantly growing by what it feeds on! Could any more depressing picture of the world be imagined?"

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Economic Sophisms: II.1, The Physiology of Plunder

Economic Sophisms: II.1, The Physiology of Plunder Oct 31, 2014

Why do I keep dwelling on that dry science, political economy? Why? The question is a reasonable one. All labor by its very nature is so repugnant that one has the right to ask what purpose it serves. Let us investigate and see.

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Economic Sophisms: First Series, Conclusion

Economic Sophisms: First Series, Conclusion Oct 30, 2014

All the sophisms that I have so far attacked concern only the question of the policy of protectionism; and even of those, out of pity for the reader, "I pass over some of the best": acquired rights, practical difficulties in the way, depletion of the currency, etc., etc. But political economy is not confined within this narrow circle. Fourierism, Saint-Simonianism, communism, mysticism, sentimentalism, false humanitarianism, affected aspirations for an imaginary equality and fraternity; questions relating to luxury, wages, machinery; to the so-called tyranny of capital; to colonies, outlets, conquests, population, emigration, association, taxes, and loans, have crowded the field of the science with a host of parasitic arguments, of sophisms, that call for the hoe and the mattock of the diligent economist.

By Bastiat Institute 0
Economic Sophisms: Chapter 22, Metaphors

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 22, Metaphors Oct 29, 2014

Sometimes a sophism expands until it permeates the whole fabric of a long and elaborate theory. More often it contracts and shrinks, assumes the form of a principle, and takes cover behind a word or a phrase.

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Economic Sophisms: Chapter 21, Raw Materials

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 21, Raw Materials Oct 28, 2014

It is said that the most advantageous of all branches of trade is that in which one exchanges manufactured goods for raw materials. For these raw materials are the staff of life for domestic labor. Hence, the conclusion is drawn that the best tariff law would be the one that would most facilitate the importation of raw materials and would erect the most obstacles to the entry of finished goods.

By Bastiat Institute 0
Economic Sophisms: Chapter 20, Human vs. Mechanical Labor and Domestic vs. Foreign Labor

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 20, Human vs. Mechanical Labor and Domestic vs. Foreign Labor Oct 27, 2014

Destroying machinery and interdicting the entry of foreign goods are alike in being both founded on the same doctrine. Those who at the same time applaud the appearance of a great invention and nevertheless advocate protectionism are most inconsistent. What is their objection to free trade? They charge it with encouraging foreigners who are more skillful than we are, or who live under more advantageous economic conditions than we do, to produce things that, in the absence of free trade, we should produce ourselves. In short, they accuse it of injuring domestic labor.

By Bastiat Institute 0
Economic Sophisms: Chapter 19, National Independence

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 19, National Independence Oct 25, 2014

Among the arguments that have been advanced in favor of the protectionist system, we must not forget the one that is founded on the idea of national independence. "What shall we do in case of war," people ask, "if we have put ourselves at the mercy of England for iron and coal?" The English monopolists for their part do not fail to exclaim: "What will happen to Great Britain in time of war if she makes herself dependent on France for food?"

By Bastiat Institute 0
Economic Sophisms: Chapter 18, There Are No Absolute Principles

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 18, There Are No Absolute Principles Oct 24, 2014

We cannot but be astonished at the ease with which men resign themselves to ignorance about what it is most important for them to know; and we may be certain that they are determined to remain invincibly ignorant if they once come to consider it as axiomatic that there are no absolute principles. Attend a session of the legislature and listen to a debate over the question whether the law should prohibit international exchange or permit free trade.

By Bastiat Institute 0
Economic Sophisms: Chapter 17, A Negative Railroad

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 17, A Negative Railroad Oct 23, 2014

I have said that as long as one has regard, as unfortunately happens, only to the interest of the producer, it is impossible to avoid running counter to the general interest, since the producer, as such, demands nothing but the multiplication of obstacles, wants, and efforts.

By Bastiat Institute 1
Economic Sophisms: Chapter 16, Obstructed Rivers as Advocates for the Protectionists

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 16, Obstructed Rivers as Advocates for the Protectionists Oct 22, 2014

Some years ago I was in Madrid, where I attended a session of the Cortes. The subject under discussion was a treaty with Portugal for improving navigation on the Douro. One of the deputies rose and said: "If the Douro is canalized, shipping rates for cargoes traveling on it will be reduced. Portuguese grain will consequently sell at a lower price in the markets of Castile and will provide formidable competition for our domestic industry. I oppose the project, unless our cabinet ministers agree to raise the customs duty so as to redress the balance." The assembly found this argument unanswerable.

By Bastiat Institute 0
Economic Sophisms: Chapter 15, Reciprocity Again

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 15, Reciprocity Again Oct 21, 2014

M. de Saint-Cricq inquires: "Are we sure that foreigners will buy from us as much as they sell to us?" M. de Dombasle would like to know: "What reason have we to believe that English producers will look to our country, rather than to any other, for the products they may need, or that the value of what they import from us will equal that of their exports to us?" I marvel how men who call themselves practical above everything else can employ reasoning so completely divorced from all practice!

By Bastiat Institute 1
Economic Sophisms: Chapter 14, Conflict of Principles

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 14, Conflict of Principles Oct 20, 2014

One thing that confuses me is this: Sincere political theorists, after studying economic problems solely from the producers' point of view, arrive at the following two conclusions: "Governments should compel the consumers who are subject to their laws to do what is beneficial for domestic industry. "Governments should make foreign consumers subject to their laws in order to compel them to do what is beneficial for domestic industry."

By Bastiat Institute 0
Economic Sophisms: Chapter 13, Theory and Practice

Economic Sophisms: Chapter 13, Theory and Practice Oct 19, 2014

We advocates of free trade are accused of being theorists, of not taking practice sufficiently into consideration. "In what a frightfully prejudicial light M. Say is put," observes M. Ferrier, "by that long line of distinguished administrators and that imposing band of writers who disagreed with his views!

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