These readings are about laws and justice. The law was made for us to follow and not to break , and if you do break you must receive the consequences for it. On page 64 he states, " When law and force keep a man within the bounds of justice, they impose nothing upon him, but a mere negotiation." We are helded at a constant negotiation with the law do good nothing will happen to you, but do bad and you will be punished. The law in a sense has a hold of our lives, but it's not a bad thing. I believe without law we would not be were we are today. Everyone would be savages and we would have no order in the world. We would have gangs of people ruling the world, and one person over everyone it would be terrible. he states on page 101, "There is the public on one side, Government on the other, considered as two different beings." We still have that problem and always will. You say the people run our government, but people don't even know our votes don't even matter. Our votes are suggestions to the people who represent us. The government can do whatever they want and we have no say. The worst part now is he government has turned us against each other. All we do now is fight and complain about politics and other stupid things that in the end doesn't even matter. I know people who won't even talk to people from the other party. That is the most ridiculous thing ever we set up our government to discuss, disagree and argue. Not to this magnitude though. Everything revolves around politics now and you can't make decisions not based off of it. People by from certain companies just because of this. the government just does stuff to temporarily please us until they get to the next problem. He states on page 231, " Nature and human labor cooperate in various proportions of commodities." The world is like this now and always will. We must sell fruits that we get from plants . We must water and take good care of the plants so we can eat or use them. It a cycle that will go on forever. This is also how our hole business world works. I work at a company called fastenal and its a distribution company. I work for an onsite so everything we do is for one company, but we use many of people to get stuff. We buy items for other people which then we turnaround and sell to them. The process is an everyday thing. It is similar how we are to plants. Like I said we take care of them then we buy them from people and sell them again to the consumers. Now i'm going to circle back to law. He brings up does law cause hate and other problems in the world? I would say yes just think about it. A lot of people can't stand cops and that is the main part of our law. There are riots and things against cops all the time. Cops can be good or bad, so I am not going to go very in depth into it. We do have a problem in this aspect. One of the main parts of our legal system the people who can arrest you and do so much more ot you don't have to do much to get the job. One of the main problem of men is power. When man gets a little bit of power they can't be stopped and I feel that is what some cops do. I mean you have the power, so why care. In one of my favorite experiments ever they test this theory. It is the stanford prison experiment. They got random students to sign up for this experiment and they divided them between cops and prisoners. After dividing them up and putting them in the rooms the cops attitudes all flipped. They felt a total rush of power some even stating that they don't even remember getting to that point it just happened. The experiment was cut day short because it got so bad for the prisoners, and they should have stopped it sooner. This is what we do with our police. A person gets out of high school decides to be a police officer and now has higher authority over everyone. The law is a complicated thing that we may never get right, but it is definitely something we need in our country, because it keeps us civil.
The Bastiat Collection
2 years ago in #entrepreneurship by ethanhill34 (42)
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This essay brought up some good points that Bastiat had mentioned in his essays. I suggest mentioning which essay you received each quote from to make it more coherent to read, as well as block quotes so that the quote stands out from the rest of the information, but I like the quotes you used. Your first quote from ‘The Law’ provided a unique view of society today.
From my understanding of the essay, I gathered that the law does not always live up to its expectations of maintaining our natural rights given by God. When I read this quote, I see a similar perspective that you do, in which the law is a negotiation that you either follow to avoid possible risk, or you break and run the chance of getting caught. The law never forces you to follow it word for word, especially when you believe it goes against your natural rights, but by doing this, you are putting yourself in a difficult position of punishment. While you think laws are put in place for order in the world, Bastiat portrays a different perspective that explains that laws create injustice to only protect certain groups while others are harmed by inequalities. You partially showed this view with the quote from ‘Government,’
With government being higher up in the economy, they do not always view the ideas of the lower- and middle-class people when creating laws. You explained this well in your essay with the rules on voting. While we may believe we are voting to see a change in our country, our votes are only a mere suggestion of what we want, but we do not always see the impact we are expecting. I also like how you brought up that this in turn has turned us against each other, when we should really be fighting for our rights against the government and not one another.
Lastly, the quote that you used from ‘Petition’ brings about one of the main points of that essay in which humans and nature work together to bring about new products. This essay’s metaphorical view on sunlight and lamps to repeal taxes explains that we should not have to pay for products that have a cheaper alternative provided elsewhere. While you took it literally, which isn’t necessarily wrong because we do take care of plants that in return give us the necessities of life, I believe that it is really saying that our work with natural forces give us things that would be unnecessary and wasteful to buy.
I feel like you had great thoughts to follow Bastiat’s essays, but you were unable to thoroughly analyze a lot of the main parts of them and the messages he was trying to convey. I also feel like the format could have been better to make the essay easier to read, as well as fixing the grammatical errors. I also feel as though the last part of your essay did not really belong to the topics at hand. I like how you tried to add outside information in to connect it to the messages, but the Stanford Prison Experiment does not relate to ending taxation and protecting our natural rights.
It was very interesting to hear your thoughts and opinions on the Bastiat essay. I especially liked what you said around the Government and their involvement in American society. You referenced in your paper “ he states on page 101,"There is the public on one side, Government on the other, considered as two different beings"(Bastiat). I agree with your statement that followed, stating: “We still have that problem and always will. You say the people run our government, but people don't even know our votes don't even matter.”(Hill, 2023). I am in complete agreement with your argument of the government being far too controlling in our society today. One common theme Bastiat explains through his papers is that the law is made in order to protect us. That is the opposite of what is going on in America's current society.
Today's government has confused people enough to the point where they don't even know their own gender. This is worse than the Stanford Prison Experiment. This is real life. In this situation the public are the prisoners and the government are the guards. They have manipulated the left with fear, much like how the guards did in the experiment. Yet, the far left continues to vote to revoke laws made in order to protect us. By defunding the police, the government has forced us to rely on them for protection. They continue to create reasons to take away citizens' firearms, if continued Americans will be left defenseless.
The far left needs to wake up and face the reality of what they have done to our Country. Bastiat would be ashamed. For those who say they agree with Bastiat's writing they should consider his warning on limited government intervention. I also think it is important to point out Bastiat includes God when talking about America and its Law. God used to be at the bases of American law, which gave people common ground on values and law. The culture today is slowly taking God out of the nation's principles and allowing people to break the law with no punishment. In ‘The Government’ Bastiat wrote: “For ourselves, we consider that Government is and ought to be nothing whatever but a common force organized, not to be an instrument of oppression and mutual plunder among citizens; but, on the contrary, to secure to every one his own, and to cause justice and security to reign.”(Bastiat Frédéric. 2011, pg. 107). One great example of where mutual plunder among citizens is taking place in California. Citizens are now living at the expense of one another. Small petty crimes and theft are no longer a crime in the State of California. Despite hearing about the constant brooding news from the State, the population votes in favor of state laws.
Bastiat does a fantastic job telling about what would happen in a world where the law is a suggestion and the Government holds all power. It is sad to see how far society has come since then, as we are basically living it. I really liked your reference to Bastiat stating that the public and Government are on different sides. All of what he states through that section reflects themes that are present in today's society. Unlike the Stanford prison experiment, we know how society has gotten to this point. It is the deception from the media/government and willingness of Americans to give up our small freedoms and laws.
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It was very interesting to hear your thoughts and opinions on the Bastiat essay. I especially liked what you said around the Government and their involvement in American society. You referenced in your paper “ he states on page 101,"There is the public on one side, Government on the other, considered as two different beings"(Bastiat, 2011). I agree with your statement that followed, stating: “We still have that problem and always will. You say the people run our government, but people don't even know our votes don't even matter.”(Hill, 2023). I am in complete agreement with your argument of the government being far too controlling in our society today. One common theme Bastiat explains through his papers is that the law is made in order to protect us. That is the opposite of what is going on in America's current society. Today's government has confused people enough to the point where they don't even know their own gender. This is worse than the Stanford Prison Experiment. This is real life. In this situation the public are the prisoners and the government are the guards. They have manipulated the left with fear, much like how the guards did in the experiment. Yet, the far left continues to vote to revoke laws made in order to protect us. By defunding the police, the government has forced us to rely on them for protection. They continue to create reasons to take away citizens' firearms, if continued Americans will be left defenseless. The far left needs to wake up and face the reality of what they have done to our Country. Bastiat would be ashamed. For those who say they agree with Bastiat's writing they should consider his warning on limited government intervention. I also think it is important to point out Bastiat includes God when talking about America and its Law. God used to be at the bases of American law, which gave people common ground on values and law. The culture today is slowly taking God out of the nation's principles and allowing people to break the law with no punishment. In ‘The Government’ Bastiat wrote: “For ourselves, we consider that Government is and ought to be nothing whatever but a common force organized, not to be an instrument of oppression and mutual plunder among citizens; but, on the contrary, to secure to every one his own, and to cause justice and security to reign.”(Bastiat Frédéric. 2011, pg. 107). One great example of where mutual plunder among citizens is taking place in California. Citizens are now living at the expense of one another. Small petty crimes and theft are no longer a crime in the State of California. Despite hearing about the constant brooding news from the State, the population votes in favor of state laws. Bastiat does a fantastic job telling about what would happen in a world where the law is a suggestion and the Government holds all power. It is sad to see how far society has come since then, as we are basically living it. I really liked your reference to Bastiat stating that the public and Government are on different sides. All of what he states through that section reflects themes that are present in today's society. Unlike the Stanford prison experiment, we know how society has gotten to this point. It is the deception from the media/government and willingness of Americans to give up our small freedoms and laws.In reading this essay, a lot of thoughtful and interesting points were brought up throughout. The quotes that were cited and mentioned were some strong and valuable ones to Bastiat's collection but I may suggest utilizing the block quotes to ensure the quotes stand out and are more legible to read. I agree in your opinion of how the law makes up the order in our world and more specifically in our country. In saying that, the law must be abided by but does not always mean it is always right or supports us as the people. As you mentioned in your essay, it has always been made aware that the government is for the people and is always considered as one yet many consider us two different communities in that we are able to influence slightly how the government runs but that is not always the case. We are two different entities and whether we are considered one people is honestly untrue in my opinion. The law and government oftentimes divide us and creates infringement between both groups of people. Frederic Bastiat explains this, and as you have shown, in his collection when he says this from "The Government,"
We can even go on to relate what Frederic Bastiat says to todays current government and events as we are unaware and uncertain how the law and government are about the people when they are going against their own. In reading your essay, you this idea when you said,
I agree with your statement as this pertains to the news and happenings we are hearing today. It does make us and more specifically me wonder what role we actually play in the government. Even as you mentioned about the voting system and how you our votes are mere suggestions and do not actually matter. I believe overall that Frederic Bastiat was intentionally saying that the government and law are unjust and corrupt in that we as a society have rights to ourselves. The laws and governments should be there to support our lives rather violate and harm them and I believe that is what you are saying in your essay.