The Economics of Freedom: What Your Professors Won't Tell You

by Frédéric Bastiat

Vintage book

Genres: Economics, Politics, Nonfiction, History, Philosophy

86 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Claude Frédéric Bastiat (29 June 1801 – 24 December 1850) was a French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly.

Reviews

[Ian Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bastiat is one of economics’ great early thinkers, though sadly much less known than his contemporary Karl Marx. Diametrically opposed to Marx’ thinking, Bastiat was responsible for the concept of opportunity cost (though he didn’t call it that) and used the concept to argue strongly for the smallest possible role for government. Taxation, he argued, shifted money from citizens and the more productive private sector to the less efficient public sector and therefore had a detrimental effect on a nation’s wealth.

The collection includes many of Bastiat’s works, including: “What is Seen and What is Not Seen” - his treatise on the hidden effects of economic actions (opportunity cost); “A Petition” - his mocking plea to government to abolish sunlight so as to increase economic production through increased consumption of tallow, charcoal, oil, resin, wax etc; “A Negative Railroad” in which he argues mockingly again, this time for unlimited stops on a proposed railroad so that every location on its route can benefit from trade and thereby increase economic output; and “The Balance of Trade” in which he tackles common misconceptions about the effects of trade surpluses and deficits. The latter work follows by 50 years Ricardo’s work on the comparative advantage of nations, and tackles the common misconceptions about trade deficits and surpluses held by Bastiat’s political contemporaries.

The book is published jointly by the right wing Atlas Economic Foundation and Students for Liberty, and the concluding section by the Cato Institute’s Tom Palmer is calculated to “show the importance of Bastiat’s ideas and then update them to more contemporary issues;” more specifically to expose today’s “fallacious economic thought [that] is being used to justify the steady erosion of our freedoms.”

Consuming about a third of the book, Palmer’s chapter is unfortunately just a right-wing polemic. Clearly written, logically structured and linked to Bastiat’s work, Palmer summarizes the political right wing’s small government / low taxation manifesto, but unfortunately his effort is mismatched with Bastiat’s groundbreaking works. Further, in applying Bastiat’s important concepts to modern political organisation, he takes them to illogical extremes - a simplistic leap of logic that hasn’t produced workable solutions on either the right or the left.

The problem with the Palmer’s work - “follow us, folks, for ours is the true path” - is the same as that of many political parties. Specifically, as important as Bastiat’s (or Marx’s, or Keynes’, or Hayek’s, or Friedman’s), works have been in helping us understand our economies and guide us forward, they are not unassailable ‘truths’; rather they are well argued ideas that help guide us in a very complex and fluid political economy.

The publishers should be commended for highlighting Bastiat’s important work, and for making it available for 99 cents in electronic form, but unfortunately their good efforts are tempered a bit by their dogmatism. Despite the inclusion of Palmer’s weaker and politicized work, the book is essential reading and a worthy introduction to Bastiat.

[Ron Shoemaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent writing. It is incredibly hard for me to believe that with writings this convincing being around since the early 1800's, we can still have a world full of protectionists and socialists today. Are they that ignorant, or just evil?

[Kasey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slim volume, contains some good essays on political economy.

As would be expected from the foreword by FA Hayek, it's pretty pro-market. Roughly half of the book is one long essay, "what is seen and what is not seen". The idea is that government spending has visible upsides (e.g. a new road), but invisible downsides (less money in the pockets of thousands of taxpayers who would otherwise have made purchases, encouraged industry, etc in their own ways.

The essay I found most interesting was the petition by the candle makers to have the government create a law that windows must be closed during daytime, thus boosting their sales. The comparison is to protectionism - cheap foreign products are at least sometimes cheap due to nature (e.g. bananas are easier to grow in Guatemala than New York), and the sun provides completely free light. Generally it does a good job showing protectionism is bad, though in the case of nationally critical industries and against potentially adversarial nations I'm still not sure it's always a poor idea.

[Kenneth L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rssential Reading for All Citizens of Democracies

Bastiat and those who comment on his ideas in this book provide an essential education to all voters in the shortest and most easily understood way. We need to inform ourselves regarding the role of markets. We need to discover the falsehoods we believe.

[Sayde Scarlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book to as a primer to Bastiat's economic theories.

[Boris Kalendarev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this in my library. Was a good refresher of sound logic

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wound up torn on this book. The first half or so, the part that actually consisted of Bastiat's writing, was engaging and fun to read, if a little awkwardly translated at parts. I felt that he relied a little too strongly on straw men and reductio ad absurdum, but I'll take the foreword's advice and chalk it up to historical difference. Overall, it was a fun read for someone who tends to disagree the libertarian position more often than not. The second half or so, however, I found drearily dull, as it seemed to fall back on the old libertarian theory completely disconnected from practice. According to it, evidently, power relations are nonexistent under proper market systems, and their mere existence indicates that by definition it is not a proper free market. Uh-huh... right. Only in the author's dreams does an employee enter into an employment contract with an employer with the exact same power as the employer, even under a so-called free-market system. It's a shame that it devolved in the second half because I would have really appreciated it if it had included some more of Bastiat's writings, or even some practical implementations of libertarian thought for modern social problems, since they do have some interesting ideas that if implemented creatively could solve vexing issues of our day. While I do enjoy dabbling in theory, it needs to connect to the real world at some point, and I really would have appreciated more of that in the second half. That half took what would have been a thoroughly enjoyable read and made it into a forgettable slog.

[Skylar Burris · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is popularly said, "We're all Keyensians now." The world has bought into the idea that the economy is fueled by spending rather than by saving. In a time when savings has fallen by the wayside, Bastiat's economic arguments in favor of thrift are needed more than ever. This volume provides a useful explanation of how thrift grows the economy in the long run. It also describes how protectionism harms the economy. Concrete analogies are used, and Bastiat emphasizes the importance of what is "unseen." Most problems with economic policy occur because voters and policymakers only concentrate on what is immediately seen but fail to consider the "unseen" effects, which are unseen precisely because they are unrealized due to changes in economic policy. (i.e. What might have happened if we had not passed this law/regulation? What might have happened if you have saved that $100 instead of spending it?) We would do well to heed Bastiat's arguments, many of which still apply today, but there is one way in which this book is untimely. Bastiat's arguments assume government spending is paid for by taxation and do not foresee a time in which such spending is primarily paid for by the defacto printing of money and subsequent inflation.

The editor of this volume has added his own brief debunking of 25 economic myths. This little ending essay is a very succinct overview of common economic misconceptions.

[Chris Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot recommend this collection of essays highly enough. For over 160 years now a battle of ideas (and sometimes, more than ideas) has been raging between competing political, social, and economic philosophies. While you have no doubt heard of the likes of Karl Marx, it's not as likely that you have heard of the likes of Frédéric Bastiat. Both were publishing their ideas at roughly the same time, but their views were light years apart. First, if you haven't done so already, read "The Communist Manifesto" by Marx and Engels and "The Law" by Bastiat (they are both short reads), and then come back for this collection. Then, keep at it.

[Werner J. Swart · Rating 4 out of 5]

It boggles the mind that the so-called intelligent economists of our time could be so un-intelligent in their decision making, giving government more and more powers to intervene in a so-called free-market system. Refreshing and simple arguments debunking complicated economic problems.

[Rendier · Rating 3 out of 5]

A selection of articles that show how well hidden some of the modern fallacies are ... and we've grown up to believe them - so much that we don't even question them!

[Jeannie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired!!!!

[Ricky Beach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read. Bastiat challenges and shows the effect economic theories have beyond the immediate.

[Greg Duncn]

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