Bastiat, The Law – 3rd Session
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Writer
Liberalism Reading Group for Beg
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Monday, November 23, 2020, 3rd session
We talked about the news that social distancing would be raised back to Level 2 starting Tuesday (the 24th). It was shared that there had been one confirmed case within the apartment complex, and that a wife’s coworker had become a close contact, resulting in temporary self-quarantine. Compared with previous waves, it really felt as though “confirmed cases” had come much closer to home.
5. Public Works
The government builds and maintains roads, constructs palaces, and digs canals. It is true that such projects provide jobs to some workers. That is the visible effect.
But as a result, workers in other occupations lose their jobs. That is the unseen effect.
In exceptional situations such as crises or severe winter conditions, it can benefit taxpayers themselves for the state to carry out public works on a temporary basis. In such cases, the state serves in place of insurance.
We discussed why state-led projects are less effective than privately led ones.
1. The government has more limited information than the private sector, which leads to inefficient use of resources.
2. Through the private sector, efficient use of resources through division of labor is possible, and there is also the effect of capital expansion through deposits and loans (an increase in total liquid assets).
6. Middlemen
Society is the sum total of services that human beings perform for one another. Such services may be created voluntarily or by compulsion. We call compulsory services “public services,” and voluntary services “private services.”
The price people pay to middlemen is easily visible. That is the visible effect.
But the price they must pay to public officials under the state or under a socialist system is not easily visible. That is the unseen effect.
Today’s socialist factions constantly oppose the free association of people.
For clothes to be made, genuine cooperation among people is necessary.
This reinforced the conviction that underlying such views is an ignorant belief that it is acceptable to impose one’s will on others.
The passage about how making clothes requires many forms of cooperation reminded me of Friedman. I wondered whether Friedman might have been inspired by Bastiat’s explanation when making a video like this.
“The Miracle of the Free Market” - Milton Friedman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MERcoe7C3dA
What Mori said was striking: one of the biggest differences between an entrepreneur and a politician may be whether one carves out a path oneself in pursuit of one’s beliefs, or imposes those beliefs on others. At the same time, there was also a warning that if one opposes only the “imposition of beliefs,” one can drift into political correctness, while if one opposes only authoritarianism, one can fall into distributism. The path of a liberal always feels like walking a narrow and rugged corridor.
Mori: Looking down on merchants was not unique to Korean history; it was also found in Europe. As a result, Jews often came to play the role of merchants. The reason for such hatred was probably fear.
Yuron: Political power vs. economic power. Starting from the logic that people with great power are dangerous and therefore power should be dispersed, it can seem as though the logic that people with great wealth are dangerous and therefore wealth should be dispersed is justified as well. Historically, there were indeed cases in which companies committed abuses through guns and swords, and I think that influenced the growth of anti-business sentiment.
7. Regulations on Trade
In a situation where Belgian steel was 30% cheaper than French steel, French steel producers had politicians pass a law preventing the import of Belgian steel.
As a result, the interests of those working in the steel industry are protected. - Visible effect
But that 30% higher price did not fall from the sky. It came out of the pockets of good citizens. What benefits steel producers harms ordinary citizens. - Unseen effect
What matters is the fact that this was carried out by “law.”
In relation to protectionism, we discussed various topics, including the case of Korea and the case of Argentina.
Along the way, we also briefly discussed the Opium Wars between Britain and Qing China.
We learned from Mori that there is a gap between what was written in the book Opium and what is generally known. It became clear that the claim that opium was sold to China as a response to silver flowing out was somewhat exaggerated. We also learned that opium in the past was simply an expensive luxury good (because its side effects were not yet known).
I had thought that if a great deal of silver flowed from Britain to Qing China, then Britain would become poorer and Qing China wealthier. So I assumed Britain, which bought a great deal of tea, must have felt anxious, and at the same time Qing China, which imported large amounts of opium, must also have felt uneasy. Was that why they burned the opium? However, unless this was a situation of forcible plunder, Britain would simply experience silver becoming a bit scarcer, making it possible to buy more goods and services with less silver (deflation), while Qing China, with more silver, would experience inflation. From this, I inferred that each country’s conditions would shift in a way that made either exports easier or imports easier depending on the situation.
Conclusion
Yeonsil spoke about concerns regarding Korean society today, and said that many people around her seem to be gradually coming to think this way as well.
On the other hand, concern was also raised that if an appropriate opposition force does not emerge, dissatisfaction with the current Democratic Party could lead to the emergence of a totalitarian party.
Once again, although we are reading a book published in 1850, it was remarkable how its political content is no different from that of modern society. It was astonishing to realize that the same struggle has been repeated for 170 years.
In this situation, I found myself once again reflecting on what each of us, and I personally, ought to do.
References
· From a Developed Country to a Developing One? Argentina, the Representative White Nation, Part 1 [Globe Research Institute Season 2 - EP.36]
· If You Want to Know the Root of the Current Situation in Hong Kong
If you would like to join the online reading group every Monday evening, we invite you to the open chatroom at the link below.
https://open.kakao.com/o/gX3OIqtb
Original title: 바스티아 <법>-3차
Author: Ja-yujuui Ipmun Dokseo Toronmoim
Date: 2020-11-23
Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=reading01&pn=7&idx=23259