The Coming of Age
During this period in the world, people wanted to see change. Men had to sacrifice everything to see new things come to light. The people gave up everything to produce new things for the world. They feared nothing, and had nothing holding them back from trying. There were no rules when it came to inventing things. These people did everything in their power to make things work. They wanted to see a new age of the world, they couldn't fear the unknown. They had competition from every corner of the world. Competition was not an issue unless they let it get to their heads. It was urgent to figure out the new things because you did not want your enemy figuring it out before you did. Bastiat (1850) stated that he wanted to make sure the men knew that this was no laughing matter, this situation was serious and he depended on these men (p.228). The men would think about all the supplies they would need to make these new objects. They went through lists of what they could make with these supplies. They talked about if they had more growth within certain groups they could make more of an impact on the economy. They explain how with time they will gain more important supplies that will help them come up with different things to produce in the world. Doing this hard tasks you have to make sacrifices in order to make things come to life. It is a scary thing to go through but the people that have the most impact on the world are the people that take risks in life. They are wanting to make a light and in order to do this you need all the supplies to make this light work. They have to find the correct price of an object by looking at their competitor's prices. When making choices for our country we have to use logic and no emotion. If we use emotion we will make irrational decisions.
The Government
Many people of America have questions about what the Government is and what they specifically do. The government basically runs the whole show. The government makes all the decisions and basically makes America sane. Being apart of the government is a huge deal and you have a huge amount of person because you are the face of the country.The government has an enormous list of to do's so that they can keep America happy and healthy. People of America rely on the government to keep them calm in stressful situations. Bastiat (1850) states that the government knows the truth but does not want to fully express how scary a certain situation can really be (pg. 96). The government will prepare plans and then get these plans out to the public so that the American people can get the news as soon as possible. The government has to go through all the taxes, so tax season takes awhile for the government because it's so detailed oriented. The government knows how the human mind works so they know how to keep the important stuff out of our heads by distracting us. Throughout the years the American people have made so many requests to the government. The government obviously takes these notes into consideration but they have to do what is best for America. Many people think that the Government is trying to take all their money but the government is trying to equally give out the right amount of money to the people. The higher end class usually does not agree with the government's decisions because the tend to give all the upper classes money to the lower class. Most of the public is blind to the truth so they sometimes only like to see what they want to see and what is not actually happening. The government wants to give good morals to the public but sadly the people have so may different opinions that it is hard for them to look towards the truth. The government will never be perfect that is why they have a lot of people against them. The government is welcome to do all things so that is why most people don not find it fair that they get so many advantages. Us as Americans have to chose between systems to trust and we do this by going with our beliefs and what we think is overall right.
The Law of it All
The law is a cold hard set rule. We can not betray it and if we do there are consequences.
Existence, faculties, assimilation—in other words, personality,
liberty, property—this is man.
It is of these three things that it may be said, apart from all
demagogic subtlety, that they are anterior and superior to all
human legislation.
It is not because men have made laws, that personality, liberty,
and property exist. On the contrary, it is because personality, liberty, and property exist beforehand, that men make laws. What,
then, is law? As I have said elsewhere, it is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.
This quote explains how to be a person in America you need these specific traits that make you an American. You can become superior person if you follow these rules and overall become successful in America if you just follow the law. Just because men made the law it does not mean that we are not capable of following them. We have just as much power to follow them because it is the words we follow. An organization is what made these laws not just a specific person. When think about the right laws to follow we should go with the ones we have been given. Most of these laws are for our safety and what the government thinks will keep us Americans safe. These laws are meant to protect us and not take us away from the bad things.
To begin, your essay started out strong with a nice introduction paragraph leading into the analysis of Basitat’s essays. I was confused at first because I did not realize you were talking about ‘Petition.’ When I read ‘Petition,’ I was stuck on the satirical use of natural light and artificial light to rid the world of taxes. You, however, analyzed what it took to get these resources to create products in a world of competition. I like how you saw the other side to his essay, the side that worked to make the products that are taxed rather than the side that believes we should be able to get these resources that other people put effort in cheaper than if we were to make them ourselves. One thing that I would disagree with in this section is when you say, “when making choices for our country we have to use logic and no emotion.” Though emotion can get in the way of making logical decisions, we still need emotion to make decisions that positively impact all the people of society. We must be able to empathize for the community around us and know what is best for those people when making decisions that can truly make a difference in the community.
I strongly agree with your second paragraph about the government. There are so many things that the government does to avoid what society needs done. However, this is only what we think the government does as society because we feel as if our voices are not being heard. In Bastiat’s essay ‘Government,’ he strives to find the meaning behind government, and in conclusion, determines that government is there to be a leader of the people in a beneficial way to protect the people, and not just there for the role. In your discussion, you also mentioned that the government does try to give the people what they want, but society has too many differing opinions that block them from seeing the truth. I believe that this is true because everyone has a different opinion to how government should lead over the people, and not everyone is going to be happy about the way things are done. We are too stuck in our ways to sometimes see the other side of things and fully trust that someone else is in control.
You did not include the parenthetical citation to this quote, so I was unable to read the context around it in Bastiat’s essay, but I agree that personality, liberty, and property make up the rights of all people. Bastiat explains that these rights go above the laws when laws interfere with them because they are superior in this case. It is difficult for me to fully have an opinion on this topic because I try not to get involved in political issues. However, I do believe that when a law goes against our natural rights like Bastiat defends, we should say something about it. But like you explained, I also believe that the law is the law and we should follow it to keep ourselves safe.
Overall, you made some really good points about what Bastiat explained in his essays. You have a few grammatical errors throughout your essay with missing citations, but the formatting of your essay made it easy to find which essay you were analyzing.
I would have to agree with that statement after doing the year and a half for getting caught with weed before it became legal then getting out of jail and getting a DUI for weed while having my medical card. So a person prescribed xanax or adderall or opoids could be driving and it's legal, but I had to do 365 days in county for that cold hard consequence all because the laws can't keep up with the changing environment. Just because I agree with your statement of that is how the law works doesn't mean I agree with the way the law is. I liked how you began with acting like the people who came over here were pioneers and clawing for everything they got, which they sure were while stealing land from the Indians and pretty much just taking everything so I don't think they are exactly heroes?
I do not agree with this comment at all. Even think it to be folly. What about the 80% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck. If the "upper class" person has a good accountant at all they have likely spent their money to avoid paying exuberant taxes so maybe this could apply to maybe say a person who inherited all his/her money and had no common sense.
In Bastiat article he says that the government is put in place to be a positive leader and help those who need to be helped, but the government should not generalize everyone and just assume that everyone needs help which is how the resources will run thin. There needs to be more detail put into the allocations of all these funds. I don't agree with you saying the government wants to give good morals to people either. You can't mix the cold hard law with giving good morals to people. I think you're getting church sermons and law mixed a little too much because the two are not synonymous. Bastiat said the world is run by people who are greedy for power no matter how you look at it and I agree with that..