“Protectionists” of every stripe are Bastiat’s primary target, but advocates of subsidies and other government interventions will also feel their arguments melting like wax before the flame. Open his Economic Sophisms, and you will find a wit that is at once dazzling and illuminating. His ideas ultimately inspired other well-known thinkers, such as Gustave de Molinari and Henry Hazlitt, many members of the Austrian School, and countless others. In the span of six short years, Bastiat littered Western Europe with brilliant economic tracts, essays, pamphlets, and books. Incredibly, Bastiat’s careers in journalism and economics-for which we remember him-began only in 1844. No mere ivory tower theorist, Bastiat was a public servant in several capacities: first as a justice of the peace, next as a member of the local Council General, and finally as a member of the French National Assembly (the French Parliament). What other public policy issues might Bastiat’s pen have exposed to the light of his brilliant intellect had he had the chance? ![]() Sadly, he was taken from the world too soon, dying in Rome from tuberculosis at age 49. Jonathan Swift-really? It’s high praise, but then again, Bastiat is humankind’s most quotable economic writer.īorn in 1801 in the tiny southwestern town of Bayonne, France, Bastiat’s flame burned brightly for just shy of half a century. No one defends the cause of free trade against protectionism, individual freedom over central planning, and opportunity contra privilege more aptly than the Jonathan Swift of economics, Frédéric Bastiat.
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