https://america.cgtn.com/2018/11/05/how-did-socialism-become-a-dirty-word-in-the-us
Reflection of The Law by Frederic Bastiat
While many forms of government exist and many are implemented throughout the world, the aim of government or the law as Frederic Bastiat puts it should be to protect its peoples lives, freedom, and property. One's desire to protect those three things is what Frederic Bastiat calls the individual force, and the collection of individual force is the common force, which should be used to implement government. According to Bastiat, two factors limit the perfect government, greed and false philanthropy. Greed causes people to “plunder” from others in order to lessen the amount of labor needed to provide for themselves. This plundering allows for the law to become “perverted” so that the law no longer serves to protect the common forces' well being. False philanthropy is a use of the law that plunders others in order to do what one believes will benefit those in need. If the government can solve these two problems then plunder would seize and a perfect government would be achievable. Bastiat believes that philanthropy could be used to lead towards society with less plunder. The problem Bastiat poses with socialism is that a socialist viewpoint sees no false philanthropy as the same thing as no philanthropy at all, and as such would be better to have false philanthropy instead of none, which also means that socialism encourages legal plunder.
This legalized plunder is what Bastiat is against, and states so throughout the entire paper. While legalized plunder can be used against the people, the system is necessary for a government to survive. Another word for this legalized plunder is taxation, and while Bastiat argues that taxation is theft, getting rid of all taxation would not be in the best interests of the people. In his argument against taxation, Bastiat states that plunder violates ownership. While taxation is an easy way for the common force to be taken advantage of, taxation is also the fuel of government, which explains why at the end of his paper, Bastiat argues for the removal of government entirety.
Government can seem like a greedy thief, but without government the perks of society are lost, the life people lived even in Bastiat’s time was one where the government provided many public commodities such as access to food, water, shelter, protection, and travel that would not be possible if anarchy reigned supreme. Even in today's time with many different forms of taxation and tons of corruption and manipulation in politics, we enjoy even more public commodities allowing for many people to focus on their one role in society such as a chef, a teacher, a doctor, etc. without worrying about their basic needs.
While I agree with Bastiat that socialism is an extreme form of government that takes advantage of its people, the removal of government is not a practical solution. While the government can infringe on people's 3 rights to life, liberty, and property, this can be avoided by other means such as removal of corruption, and forcing accountability in politics. While these solutions are vague, it is a more practical and easier solution than removing the government, and better for the people than socialism.
