Bastiat, Frederic

Born: June 29, 1801; Bayonne, France.  Death: December 24, 1850; Rome, Papal States.  Bastiat was a Classical Liberal who defended the individual against a tyrannical state.  He was openly critical of socialism and other forms of statism.  He authored, “Petition From the Manufacturers of Candles” (1845); “The Right Hand and the Left” (1847); “Letat” (1849); “The Law” (1850); “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen” (1850).  Bastiat taught that as wealth becomes increasingly gratuitous, property becomes better distributed, and the interests of capital and labor come to coincide.  With economic prosperity, the rate of interest falls, and although the incomes of both the capitalist and the worker rise in absolute value, that of the capitalist increases less, proportionately, than does that of labor.  Liberty has a natural tendency to create that equality which socialists want to institute by other means.