A Swiss Message for Ségolène
From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Fri, 2007-01-05 14:59
Switzerland does not need fiscal lessons from France. The French Left has to accept its own mistakes. The 35-hour week is a failure for which left-wing politicians try to compensate by raising taxes. They had better realize that Swiss employees work 20% harder than the French.
Frederic Bastiat - Some excerpts from "The Law" Pt I
Submitted by FLLegal on Tue, 2007-01-09 05:25.
Who said nothing ever good came out of France???
Author: Bastiat, Frédéric (1801-1850)
Title: "The Law"
Published: Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., trans. Dean Russell, 1998.
First published: 1850, in French.
Found at: http://www.econlib.org/library/bastiat/basEss2a.html and multiple other sites on the web.
The Law
The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish!
If this is true, it is a serious fact, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it.
Life Is a Gift from God
We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life—physical, intellectual, and moral life.
But life cannot maintain itself alone. The Creator of life has entrusted us with the responsibility of preserving, developing, and perfecting it. In order that we may accomplish this, He has provided us with a collection of marvelous faculties. And He has put us in the midst of a variety of natural resources. By the application of our faculties to these natural resources we convert them into products, and use them. This process is necessary in order that life may run its appointed course.
Life, faculties, production—in other words, individuality, liberty, property—this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it.
Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.
Frederic Bastiat - Some excerpts from "The Law" Pt II
Submitted by FLLegal on Tue, 2007-01-09 05:26.
What Is Law ?
What, then, is law? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.
Each of us has a natural right—from God—to defend his person, his liberty, and his property. These are the three basic requirements of life, and the preservation of any one of them is completely dependent upon the preservation of the other two. For what are our faculties but the extension of our individuality? And what is property but an extension of our faculties?
If every person has the right to defend even by force—his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right—its reason for existing, its lawfulness—is based on individual right. And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force—for the same reason—cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups.
Such a perversion of force would be, in both cases, contrary to our premise. Force has been given to us to defend our own individual rights. Who will dare to say that force has been given to us to destroy the equal rights of our brothers? Since no individual acting separately can lawfully use force to destroy the rights of others, does it not logically follow that the same principle also applies to the common force that is nothing more than the organized combination of the individual forces?
If this is true, then nothing can be more evident than this: The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense. It is the substitution of a common force for individual forces. And this common force is to do only what the individual forces have a natural and lawful right to do: to protect persons, liberties, and properties; to maintain the right of each, and to cause justice to reign over us all.
Frederic Bastiat - Some excerpts from "The Law" Pt III
Submitted by FLLegal on Tue, 2007-01-09 05:30.
A Just and Enduring Government
If a nation were founded on this basis, it seems to me that order would prevail among the people, in thought as well as in deed. It seems to me that such a nation would have the most simple, easy to accept, economical, limited, nonoppressive, just, and enduring government imaginable—whatever its political form might be.
Under such an administration, everyone would understand that he possessed all the privileges as well as all the responsibilities of his existence. No one would have any argument with government, provided that his person was respected, his labor was free, and the fruits of his labor were protected against all unjust attack. When successful, we would not have to thank the state for our success. And, conversely, when unsuccessful, we would no more think of blaming the state for our misfortune than would the farmers blame the state because of hail or frost. The state would be felt only by the invaluable blessings of safety provided by this concept of government.
It can be further stated that, thanks to the non-intervention of the state in private affairs, our wants and their satisfactions would develop themselves in a logical manner. We would not see poor families seeking literary instruction before they have bread. We would not see cities populated at the expense of rural districts, nor rural districts at the expense of cities. We would not see the great displacements of capital, labor, and population that are caused by legislative decisions.
The sources of our existence are made uncertain and precarious by these state-created displacements. And, furthermore, these acts burden the government with increased responsibilities.
Frederic Bastiat - Some excerpts from "The Law" Pt IV
Submitted by FLLegal on Tue, 2007-01-09 05:34.
The Complete Perversion of the Law
But, unfortunately, law by no means confines itself to its proper functions. And when it has exceeded its proper functions, it has not done so merely in some inconsequential and debatable matters. The law has gone further than this; it has acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. The law has been used to destroy its own objective: It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. 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.
How has this perversion of the law been accomplished? And what have been the results?
The law has been perverted by the influence of two entirely different causes: stupid greed and false philanthropy. Let us speak of the first.
Frederic Bastiat - Some excerpts from "The Law" Pt V
Submitted by FLLegal on Tue, 2007-01-09 05:35.
A Fatal Tendency of Mankind
Self-preservation and self-development are common aspirations among all people. And if everyone enjoyed the unrestricted use of his faculties and the free disposition of the fruits of his labor, social progress would be ceaseless, uninterrupted, and unfailing.
But there is also another tendency that is common among people. When they can, they wish to live and prosper at the expense of others. This is no rash accusation. Nor does it come from a gloomy and uncharitable spirit. The annals of history bear witness to the truth of it: the incessant wars, mass migrations, religious persecutions, universal slavery, dishonesty in commerce, and monopolies. This fatal desire has its origin in the very nature of man—in that primitive, universal, and insuppressible instinct that impels him to satisfy his desires with the least possible pain.
Frederic Bastiat - Some excerpts from "The Law" Pt VI
Submitted by FLLegal on Tue, 2007-01-09 05:36.
Property and Plunder
Man can live and satisfy his wants only by ceaseless labor; by the ceaseless application of his faculties to natural resources. This process is the origin of property.
But it is also true that a man may live and satisfy his wants by seizing and consuming the products of the labor of others. This process is the origin of plunder.
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. History shows this quite clearly. And under these conditions, neither religion nor morality can stop it.
When, then, does plunder stop? It stops when it becomes more painful and more dangerous than labor. It is evident, then, that the proper purpose of law is to use the power of its collective force to stop this fatal tendency to plunder instead of to work. All the measures of the law should protect property and punish plunder.
But, generally, the law is made by one man or one class of men. And since law cannot operate without the sanction and support of a dominating force, this force must be entrusted to those who make the laws.
This fact, combined with the fatal tendency that exists in the heart of man to satisfy his wants with the least possible effort, explains the almost universal perversion of the law. Thus it is easy to understand how law, instead of checking injustice, becomes the invincible weapon of injustice. It is easy to understand why the law is used by the legislator to destroy in varying degrees among the rest of the people, their personal independence by slavery, their liberty by oppression, and their property by plunder. This is done for the benefit of the person who makes the law, and in proportion to the power that he holds.
Frederic Bastiat - Some excerpts from "The Law" Pt VII
Submitted by FLLegal on Tue, 2007-01-09 05:37.
Victims of Lawful Plunder
Men naturally rebel against the injustice of which they are victims. Thus, when plunder is organized by law for the profit of those who make the law, all the plundered classes try somehow to enter—by peaceful or revolutionary means—into the making of laws. According to their degree of enlightenment, these plundered classes may propose one of two entirely different purposes when they attempt to attain political power: Either they may wish to stop lawful plunder, or they may wish to share in it.
Woe to the nation when this latter purpose prevails among the mass victims of lawful plunder when they, in turn, seize the power to make laws!
Until that happens, the few practice lawful plunder upon the many, a common practice where the right to participate in the making of law is limited to a few persons. But then, participation in the making of law becomes universal. And then, men seek to balance their conflicting interests by universal plunder. Instead of rooting out the injustices found in society, they make these injustices general. As soon as the plundered classes gain political power, they establish a system of reprisals against other classes. They do not abolish legal plunder. (This objective would demand more enlightenment than they possess. ) Instead, they emulate their evil predecessors by participating in this legal plunder, even though it is against their own interests.
It is as if it were necessary, before a reign of justice appears, for everyone to suffer a cruel retribution—some for their evilness, and some for their lack of understanding.
Frederic Bastiat - Some excerpts from "The Law" Pt VIII
Submitted by FLLegal on Tue, 2007-01-09 05:39.
The Results of Legal Plunder
It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.
What are the consequences of such a perversion? It would require volumes to describe them all. Thus we must content ourselves with pointing out the most striking.
In the first place, it erases from everyone's conscience the distinction between justice and injustice.
No society can exist unless the laws are respected to a certain degree. The safest way to make laws respected is to make them respectable. 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. This is so much the case that, in the minds of the people, law and justice are one and the same thing. There is in all of us a strong disposition to believe that anything lawful is also legitimate. This belief is so widespread that many persons have erroneously held that things are "just" because law makes them so. Thus, in order to make plunder appear just and sacred to many consciences, it is only necessary for the law to decree and sanction it. Slavery, restrictions, and monopoly find defenders not only among those who profit from them but also among those who suffer from them.
Frederic Bastiat - Some excerpts from "The Law" Pt IX
Submitted by FLLegal on Tue, 2007-01-09 05:43.
The Fate of Non-Conformists
If you suggest a doubt as to the morality of these institutions, it is boldly said that "You are a dangerous innovator, a utopian, a theorist, a subversive; you would shatter the foundation upon which society rests."
If you lecture upon morality or upon political science, there will be found official organizations petitioning the government in this vein of thought: "That science no longer be taught exclusively from the point of view of free trade (of liberty, of property, and of justice) as has been the case until now, but also, in the future, science is to be especially taught from the viewpoint of the facts and laws that regulate French industry (facts and laws which are contrary to liberty, to property, and to justice). That, in government-endowed teaching positions, the professor rigorously refrain from endangering in the slightest degree the respect due to the laws now in force."*1
Thus, if there exists a law which sanctions slavery or monopoly, oppression or robbery, in any form whatever, it must not even be mentioned. For how can it be mentioned without damaging the respect which it inspires? Still further, morality and political economy must be taught from the point of view of this law; from the supposition that it must be a just law merely because it is a law.
Another effect of this tragic perversion of the law is that it gives an exaggerated importance to political passions and conflicts, and to politics in general.
I could prove this assertion in a thousand ways. But, by way of illustration, I shall limit myself to a subject that has lately occupied the minds of everyone: universal suffrage.
This man Bastiat is one of the few true intellectuals to come out of France in a long time, i.e. 200 years ago. Read the rest at: http://www.econlib.org/library/bastiat/basEss2a.html
The welfare state in France
Submitted by JizzyPie on Sat, 2007-01-06 22:04.
The welfare state in France is completely unsustainable in a globalized world. The corporate taxes are excessive and I refuse to even comment on the scandalous levels of public spending. France has one of the highest unemployment levels in the developed world and they are hardly in the position to lecture Switzerland, a country with almost no unemployment, on how to run their economic affairs. France has an unhealthy reputation for bullying other European countries, particularly Ireland, into accepting a "tax harmonization" programme. This programme would force EU countries like Ireland to raise their relatively low corporation taxes to the same levels as that of France or Germany. The French have a strong distate for economic reform, even the parties that pass for right wing cry out for more 'protection' against the forces of the free market. Ms Royal may be a beautiful woman, but she is a communist, and France's economic problems will only deteriorate if she is elected.
Mistake in your translation
Submitted by bpilet on Sat, 2007-01-06 13:08.
"They had better realized that Swiss employees earn 20% more than the French" is a wrong translation from the original article's content: the French word "bosser" means "to work hard", not "to earn [money]".
Apart from that, I totally agree with the tone of your article and the Swiss reaction on Mr Montebourg's comments.
We, the french, support those who can leave !
Submitted by Bruno on Fri, 2007-01-05 18:28.
I do think that many of the hard-working middle-class french people who are constantly subjected to an ever increasing fiscal pressure do support those who can leave France. We think : "He got the courage to do it, to risk the ire and punitive "controle fiscal" that the state use to retaliate against rebels...If only I could move out too..."
The socialists want to keep the taxes high in France (maybe the highest overall tax pressure in Europe) to keep funding the real ruling class of the french socialism (which never stopped, even under Chirac), the state employees. The public sector, the "mammoth" is extraordinary big in France, and weighs heavily on the private sector: Because of the punitive taxes of all sorts levied by the french tax system on the economy to pay for the overstaffed administrations and public entities, the businesses can't reasonably hire workers.
We increasingly see a two-tier system : on one side, well-protected, early-retiring, always-on-strike "fonctionnaires", and on the other side workers and middle-class professionals desperately striving to stay afloat and whose standard of living slowly erodes.
Precisely.....
Submitted by oiznop on Fri, 2007-01-05 18:14.
it is not surprising that French politiciams will try to remove the competition from the Swiss and other governments through coercive - political - means, i.e. through demands (threats) for "tax harmonisation" and the like. It can only be to the detriment of French and Swiss consumers (tax payers) alike.
Especially when the one system (French/Socialist) is a known failure, and the other system (Swiss/Capitalist) works....The first system sees this and becomes envious..(the French??..Envious???..No, really???).....Class Envy...Ya got to love it!.....
Competition
Submitted by marcfrans on Fri, 2007-01-05 17:19.
Governments are in the business of providing 'public goods' (really mainly services). By their very nature these goods and services are not freely purchased on markets by consumers, but rather they are forceably sold (imposed) by governments through 'confiscation of income' in the form of taxes. To some extent all this is inevitable and necessary.
All governments and sub-governments are thus in a sense in competition with other governments. And like most market competitors they will seek ways to remove/limit that competition to the detriment of 'consumers'. Hence, it is not surprising that French politiciams will try to remove the competition from the Swiss and other governments through coercive - political - means, i.e. through demands (threats) for "tax harmonisation" and the like. It can only be to the detriment of French and Swiss consumers (tax payers) alike.