[e-gold-list] RE: Bastiat
Happy birthday Bastiat! http://bastiat.org/en/ Our political leaders (and the voters too!) will do well to learn the lessons intended by Bastiat's witty satires, particularly his petition to the French parliament on behalf of candlemakers and related industries seeking relief from ruinous competition of a foreign rival who works under conditions so far superior to our own for the production of light that he is flooding the domestic market with it at an incredibly low price. The foreign rival was the sun. The relief sought was a law requiring the closing of all blinds to shut out the sunlight and stimulate the domestic candle industry. The relevance to e-gold? This is an international Internet currency. Only a fool among us (or someone with a vested interest, prepared to place personal gain over public good) would support mercantilist protectionism over free trade! Is not someone who extracts $X of personal gain at the expense of nonconsentual participants simply a thief? Is not also one who takes $X at a cost greater than $X from unwilling parties simply a vandal and a looter? Therefore we all should take the time to mark Bastiat's 200th birthday by letting our leaders know that we demand they rule for the good of all and not a protected few. We are not willing to be complicit in the persecution of our fellow (wo)man by membership in a group (such as a nation through citizenship) that does this governmental action. Those who do collectively what their consciences forbids them personally, are behaving irresponsibly. Similarly those who fail to behave individually with the morals they demand of their government are also hypocrits and irresponsible. Ian Green http://two-cents-worth.com/?107242 -Original Message- From: Bob [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, 5 July 2001 11:06 PM To: e-gold Discussion Subject: [e-gold-list] Bastiat SNIP http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB994299301115112922.djm July 5, 2001 Commentary In Praise of an Economic Revolutionary By Bob McTeer, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. SNIP --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: archive@jab.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[e-gold-list] Re: Bastiat
Hear, hear! The best source for Bastitat books -- Joe Moorman's http://www.planetgold.com/books/ site! Subject: In Praise of Bastiat Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2001 06:41:30 -0400 From: R. A. Hettinga [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Digital Bearer Settlement List [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB994299301115112922.djm July 5, 2001 Commentary In Praise of an Economic Revolutionary By Bob McTeer, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else. -- Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) Claude Frederic Bastiat was born in Bayonne, in the southwest of France, 200 years ago last Friday. This week, I kicked off a conference in nearby Dax, France, celebrating Bastiat's contributions to individual liberty and free markets. The whole world should be celebrating the birthday of this pioneer of free-market capitalism. Frederic Bastiat Bastiat's output was prodigious, especially in the last five years of his life. Through his writing and speeches, and as a member of the French Chamber of Deputies, Bastiat fought valiantly against the protectionism and socialism of his time. He proselytized for free trade, free markets and individual liberty. His weapons were wit and satire; his method was the reductio ad absurdum. More than any other person before or since, he exposed economic fallacies with a clarity, simplicity and humor that left opponents with no place to hide. Bastiat called attention to the absurdities that come from favoring producers over consumers and sellers over buyers. Producers benefit from scarcity and high prices while consumers benefit from abundance and low prices. Government policies favoring producers, therefore, tend to favor scarcity over abundance. They shrink the pie. --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: archive@jab.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
