Frederic Bastiat’s writing of “The Law” goes in-depth into his beliefs on society and how the government affects people's lives. I agree with Bastiat's initial statement of “The Law," however, I do disagree with much of his writing specifically in the sections of The Reason Why Voting Is Restricted and The Socialist Concept Of Liberty.
Bastiat starts his writing with his opinion on the law in the present day (the 1850s). He states the law is perverted and has turned from its proper purpose. I agree with him within the context of today's society. While my reasoning for agreeing with his statement may be different from his own, I think Bastiat's statement still holds true. Within today's society, I believe our law has turned from justice to a political game. Our court judges merely wish to further their political career, our lawyers will absolve all their morals in the name of cash, and our politicians would rather push for re-election. He also says “The law become the weapon of every kind of greed!” I interpreted his statement to mean the extortion of the law, a loophole, a way in which various people gain at the expense of the people. A recent example of this was the STOCK Act established in 2012. The purpose of the act was to combat insider trading which had been occurring for decades within congress. Unfortunately, greed struck again, and in 2013 congress amended the act to ensure that while it would still stand, the ability for the public to access the stocks of congress would become quite difficult.
While I agree with various points made by Bastiat, there are key thoughts I cannot overlook. The Reason Why Voting Is Restricted is one of Bastiat’s ideas I strongly object. In this section, he essentially argues that safeguards should be in place in order to protect the people from incapable voters. His thoughts align with the term of mobocracy. This belief is that of our founding fathers, and their similar beliefs are the reason for many present say controversies such as the electoral college. The largest issue behind his belief is that in order for the incapable to be needing to be silenced, they must in turn have a large enough voice to warrant it. The voice of the incapable, as he says, is nonetheless a citizen who has every right to vote as everyone else. I bring up the electoral college due to the growing controversy within the United States, specifically surrounding the 2016 election. The electoral college was put in place so that elected representatives would have the true voice in the election, and so that each state would have representation. The only issue in today's time is that the electoral college is disproportionate and makes it so where you vote is more important than your vote.
Finally, the section The Socialist Concept of Liberty is when Bastiat combats the notion that “liberty leads inevitably to monopoly.” I disagree with his belief that today we are living in a monopolized society. To start, this isn't the first time when the United States has been controlled and monopolized. The 19th century within the United States is commonly known as the time of robber barons, where few businessmen namely Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and John D. Rockefeller were the captains of industry. They gained such vast control over the United States they were able to influence law and run out of any and all competition. This is occurring once again. I argue that many companies are monopolies including Amazon, Walmart, and even Disney. Today 10 companies control the entirety of our food industry, 6 corporations run the media, and 7 companies control the beauty industry. The names of the robber barons mentioned should be easily recognized, as even today each of these men's wealth has still carried on through generations and has only continued to increase. The same will occur for our titans of the industry today.
[Image Source]Voting
