Bastiat’s The Law – 7th Session
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Writer
Liberalism Reading Group for Beg
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December 27, 2020 (Mon), 7th session
p.93 Human Nature
Everyone desires self-preservation and self-development.
But human beings also have another tendency. If they can, they seek their own survival and advancement even at the expense of others.
Looking back at history, this is indeed true.
It stems from a primitive, universal, and hard-to-overcome emotional response—human nature itself—which seeks what is good and avoids what is bad.
p.94 Property and Plunder
Human beings can survive and satisfy their wants only through constant labor—that is, constant production and use. That is the origin of property.
But in practice, it is also possible to sustain one’s survival and enjoy life by taking possession of the fruits of others’ labor. That tendency is the origin of plunder.
Neither religion nor morality has been able to prevent this human tendency.
Then when does man stop plundering? Only when plunder becomes more difficult than labor does man finally stop plundering.
It is clear that the proper purpose of law should be to protect property from plunder.
Many religions and social norms have constantly sought to govern this aspect of human nature and thereby make the world better. At the same time, it is also true that a small number of exceptional individuals have disciplined their own nature, pursued higher character, served as examples to others, and contributed to making the world better.
Nevertheless, it is also true that the majority of ordinary people fail to govern their nature. As Bastiat noted, there are indeed those who, if they can, will calmly carry out what are called evil deeds.
Even though 2,000 years have passed since Christianity and Buddhism, both aspiring to be universal religions, appeared in human history, human nature does not seem to have changed much. My view is that, rather, the role of the market—channeling this nature so that outcomes become positive-sum rather than zero-sum—has gradually grown, and that this has led the world to improve incrementally compared with the past.
We briefly discussed the conventional view that treats human nature as selfishness, or that regards the word “selfishness” itself negatively.
I agreed with Yuronn’s point that selfishness is a rational choice for oneself, and that “rational” means making choices while considering short-, medium-, and long-term consequences.
“Exchange” takes place at the point where one person’s self-interest meets another’s, and the place where such “exchange” occurs is the “market.” Every “exchange” is an efficient allocation of the human and material resources one possesses. Fundamentally, this is based on self-interest.
A very simple and representative example is the secondhand transactions on Karrot Market, which I often use. If you open the app, you can see countless goods being traded voluntarily. Some people want to turn goods they own into cash, while others want to turn their cash into goods owned by someone else.
If there is a difference between the prices each side wants, the transaction does not occur. But through adjustment based on self-interest, a point of contact emerges, and at that equilibrium price the two individuals make a “trade.” Each satisfies his or her own self-interest and is fully satisfied. No one was coerced, no one was forced into an unwanted transaction, and from the standpoint of society as a whole there was no increase whatsoever in output—yet the welfare of each individual increased.
The person who sold an item no longer in use can improve his own well-being thanks to the newly acquired cash. And the person who bought the item at a lower price, thinking that even a used good can provide the same benefit as a new one in increasing his own well-being, also improved his own welfare.
This is precisely the positive-sum outcome created by “exchange” itself.
From the standpoint of society as a whole, resources were simply redistributed, yet welfare increased. Those who believe the state can do this better are socialists. In other words, they believe that if the resources held by individuals are transferred into state ownership and the state allocates them well, better outcomes will result. Personally, I of course do not believe this, and history has in fact shown it to be impossible.
Those who understand that social welfare can increase further when individuals fully own their private property and trade it are liberals. Bastiat says that man possesses individuality (life), liberty (faculties), and property (production), and that these are man himself.
Just as one’s own life, liberty, and property are precious, so too are those of others. Therefore, he says, the only proper “law” is that which helps protect them.
Taejun explained that higher material culture has developed in societies that pursue a high spiritual culture seeking to preserve and elevate these universal human values.
Mori mentioned that Neo-Confucianism during the formative period of the Joseon Dynasty functioned as a social system that brought violence to an end. Although it was also a status-based society divided into scholar, farmer, artisan, and merchant, it created a system in which the king and his officials checked one another, and social stability could also be pursued through a system organized by rank.
A question liberals are sometimes asked reduces the concept of “freedom” to the crude idea that one can do absolutely anything, and asks whether that would mean allowing everything, such as “abortion,” “homosexuality,” and “prostitution.”
In response, Mori said that liberals should distinguish between social customs and enacted law, and maintain a spirit of resistance toward enacted law; I agreed with this as well. Many opponents of abortion may personally feel uncomfortable about abortion, but if their own daughter were in a situation where she had to have an abortion for some reason, they would surely feel a different kind of resistance to having it prohibited by law.
Mori also gave a similar example.
In the past, opium was once used so widely that it was even used to put children to sleep. Later, after the side effects of opium became recognized, a petition movement calling for its prohibition continued for as long as 30 years before it was finally regulated by law. Today, most societies and their members recognize the harms of opium and avoid it, and it is also regulated by law.
In the same context, after opium regulation in the 1830s came the regulation of slavery and even Prohibition. But not everything ceases simply because it is prohibited by law. As we know, the enactment of Prohibition, rather than creating a better society, drove things further underground, expanded the power of the mafia, and created even greater social problems. Looking at these points, no one can clearly know what a perfect law is. It made me think that perhaps the only thing we can do is to observe keenly and raise our voices from the perspective of “freedom.”
Once the topic of human nature came up and we began discussing it and the course of history, I lost track of time. So we did not get through many pages.
It made me realize how very important it is to know history in order to understand human nature. It was especially disheartening that historical facts were being distorted by the pseudo-historian Seol Minseok, and that this situation had been exposed for all to see.
Since last week, we have continued the process of asking where “freedom” comes from and what “human nature” is, and of seeking answers appropriate to those questions. We may not be able to find easy answers, but I was reminded once again that wrestling with these questions clearly serves as a guide to how we can move toward what is more right.
The year 2020 passed in the blink of an eye. It seems to have been a period of greater personal achievement than any other year. Ironically, I think this was thanks to COVID-19. For example, if not for COVID-19, I might never have dared to try holding an online book club.
I look forward to an even more hopeful 2021.
Original title: 바스티아 <법>-7차
Author: Jayujuui Ipmun Dokseo Toronmoim
Date: 2020-12-27
Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=reading01&pn=6&idx=23386