“The more I study the history of intellectuals, the more they seem like a wrecking crew dismantling civilization bit by bit, replacing what works with what sounds good.” – Thomas Sowell
“Every time we object to a thing being done by the government, the socialists conclude that we object to it being done at all.” – Frederic Bastiat
Today, we celebrate the lives and ideas of economists Thomas Sowell and Frederic Bastiat, who were both born on the 30th of June, 129 years apart.
The world would be much freer and more prosperous if the ideals and insights of these two men, from very different times and places, were to become mainstream.
Frederic Bastiat, born in Bayonne, France in 1801, championed individual rights and freedom of choice throughout the revolutionary years of his country. He served as a member of the French National Assembly and as an economist described the concept that came to be known as “opportunity cost.”
Bastiat’s most famous work, “The Law,” was published the year he died, in 1850. The book is a must-read for all interested in understanding the folly of socialism and big government. Bastiat warned that, “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.”
While the law should serve to protect the rights of individuals, he argued, it was increasingly being hijacked by those with much broader ambitions for government. In turn, these ambitions result in politicians turning to “legal plunder,” the forceful taking from some to give to others regardless of the consequences or morality of doing so.
“Legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways,” he explained. “Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole — with their common aim of legal plunder — constitute socialism.”
As noted in the opening quote, it’s not that Bastiat disagreed with combating poverty, making education widely available or helping those in need. Not at all. His point was that relying on the force of the state to achieve or pursue those noble ends was neither justified nor necessary. Free people, backed by the power of the market, could solve these problems.
Likewise, Thomas Sowell, economist, historian, and brilliant social theorist, uses his incredible intellect to try to thwart the power of the state over the individual and their freedom.
Sowell, born in Gastonia, North Carolina, in 1930, is fortunately still with us. Like many young people, Sowell was a Marxist in his earlier days. But he came to see and truly understand the destructive consequences of socialism, and the benefits of unencumbered markets in a free society.
Sowell has never feared calling out the intellectual failings, and hubris, of progressives who see only failure in capitalism and only good from government action. “It is far easier to concentrate power than to concentrate knowledge,” he wrote. “That is why so much social engineering backfires and why so many despots have led their countries into disasters.”
Likewise, as an African American, he has never feared dismantling the bizarre notion, popular in far-left circles and increasingly prominent in mainstream left-wing circles, that America is an irredeemably and uniquely racist nation.
“Racism is not dead,” he once wrote. “But it is on life-support, kept alive mainly by the people who use it for an excuse or to keep minority communities fearful or resentful enough to turn out as a voting bloc on Election Day.”
Needless to say, Sowell’s brilliance is precisely why he’s often ignored by mainstream liberals and so-called intellectuals. Fortunately, that hasn’t deterred him. Thomas Sowell has authored dozens of books, as well as scholarly articles and countless newspaper columns.
Bastiat and Sowell, from different times and places, have understood the value of freedom and the dangers of ceding more and more power to politicians and the state.
If you might be interested in truly understanding the arguments for a free society and against socialism, we recommend Bastiat’s “The Law,” any one of the many written works of Sowell, including “Basic Economics” and “A Conflict of Visions,” and the recent biography “Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell” by Jason L. Riley, who is on the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board.
Richard Boddie is a member of the Southern California News Group’s editorial board. Sal Rodriguez is the opinion editor of the Southern California News Group.